The Boss Gathering
by Nivek01
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal meeting. Everything was going fine. Until Tsuna became psychic, Squalo wanted to become a navy SEAL, and Basil killed a dragon. And that's before they even met the other families. Can Chrome get through the whole week sane?
1. Chapter 1: The Call

**My first series. Serialization of my earlier one-shot, "Meeting". If you couldn't of guessed from the summary, there will probably be slight character OOCness. This is intentional, and is either explained in the story, is due to age (the fic takes place approx. 8-9.5YL), or is light and for comic relief. Read on, and please review. **

**Enjoy**

_DING DONG_

The doorbell rang. The noise reverberated through a small house, lightly furnished, with only the basic things someone needed to live. A couch here. A small T.V. across the room there. Everything was neat and orderly, as if it was kept in very good condition...or never used.

DING DONG

The exception being the 'master' bedroom, which was actually about the size of two smaller walk in closets. It seemed as if all the personal items that should have been spread out among the house had been crammed into this one small space. Small pieces of furniture were decorated with pictures of boys fighting and old destroyed buildings. Old pieces of junk and piles of clothes surrounded said pictures and furniture, which seemed to be all surrounding a mattress in the center of the room, covered in dark blue sheets.

DING DONG DING DONG

A small purple wave that almost perfectly blended with the sheets in the dimly lit room moved. It swayed slightly, as the wrinkles in the sheets seemed to invert in a motion that could only be explained as someone rolling over.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG

The purple wave seemed to be sucked downward slowly as the covers moved up and a soft groaning came from the sheets.

DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DO-

"STUPID WOMAN!" shouted Joushima Ken as he kicked down the old door. "IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GO TO SCHOOL!"

Back in the master bedroom, more groaning ensued as the purple wave abruptly shot up and the blue sheets flew back, revealing a very tired, very out of it, very beautiful college senior by the name of Chrome Dokuro.

Chrome stretched and yawned, rubbing her closed eye with her left hand as her right searched through the nearest pile of clothes. Moving her hand down and half opening her eye, she looked at the pile she was searching through. Then she shrugged, taking her hands out of the pile and hugging her midsection.

Now in the living room, Ken looked around. "STUPID WOMAN! Where are you!" He looked across the living room and saw a hallway. Quietly growling, he marched toward the hall as he straightened the tie he wore on his suit. Still yelling, he asked "Are you not even UP yet?"

Ken came stomping down the hall, turning into the bedroom to find Chrome on her mattress, hugging her midsection with her legs crossed, laying down and staring up at him. She was wearing nothing from the waist down except a pair of black lace panties. From the waist up, she wore a small, light pink, sleeveless tanktop, that extended down till just below her diaphragm, leaving her mid section completely exposed to the world. She stared right into Ken's eyes, her hair surrounding her face and neck as her glistening amnethyst eye bored into his. She brought herself onto her elbows, and softly, seductively whispered, in her bell like voice. "Ken..."

Ken only responded by gaping. He'd gotten over his crush on Chrome a long time ago, but man was she hot.

Chrome raised one of her arms, elbow still on the mattress. She pointed a finger at Ken, then turned her palm upwards and slowly bent her finger towards her.

Ken's eyeballs popped out of his head. _ No way...she doesn't want to...?_

Chrome softly moaned, keeping her lips sealed as her eye slowly closed.

_She does...YES!_

Ken suddenly stood up straight. "CHR-" he began to shout as he tried to lunge forward, only to be hit in the head by a yo-yo.

Kakimoto Chikusa, in matching suit,sighed as he walked over to his partner on the floor. "You know she's playing with you, right?" Ken looked up and glared at him. "Shut up Kakipi." Chikusa just pushed his glasses up, straightening the cloth hat he wore on his head. No one really knew why he always wore one, but people had guessed that it had something to do with whatever 'enhancement' he had been put through while he was a test subject.

"Now, Chrome, we really need to get you to sch..." Chikusa trailed off as he looked inside Chrome's room to see her facing away from them, her tanktop on the mattress by her feet. She was grabbing a pair of jeans and slowly putting them on.

Chikusa raised an eyebrow. Ken froze from trying to get off the ground. They both watched as Chrome slowly pulled the jeans up and around her legs. She looked over her shoulder again and made eye contact with the two men. She slowly turned around...her hands clear of her chest, at her sides...both boy's eyes widened...

And suddenly Chrome exploded outward, a maniacal "BOOOOOOO" tearing towards them. They both jumped and screamed. When the explosion turned to mist flames and went backwards to reform around Chrome, whose hair was up in its pineapple shape and was wearing a bra to match her panties, she simply smiled at her two bodyguards.

She looked around her room, sighing. Chrome pulled a white long sleeve shirt over her head, a picture of a cute bunny face across her chest with the word "Chappy" written in purple italics underneath it. Then she desperately lunged for a jacket hanging on the back of her door. When she wore it, the sleeves went to just behind her elbows, and if she zipped it up it only covered the top half of her upper body. But as she got ready to put it on, she smiled at the skull on its back that matched the one on her eye patch.

She looked at the two boys standing in her doorway, glaring at her. She flipped up her collar, smiling sweetly. "Shall we go?"

* * *

Chikusa drove her to her college campus, Ken in the passenger seat complaining the whole way, Chrome in the back marveling at the town they were driving through.

"Goddddddd." whined Ken. "Why the hell did Vongola ever decide it would be a good idea to go to college here?"

"Can't be helped." sighed Chikusa. "From what Mukuro-sama told me, Gokudera Hayato insisted that the Guardians all attend the same school, and this was the only place all six of them could agree on."

Chrome looked out the windows as Chikusa continued explaining to Ken, who had a look of disgust on his face he always gained when they talked about the Vongola Family for long periods of time. She looked at all the houses they drove by...the high school...the market...she loved this town. It wasn't Namimori, but the feel was the same.

"Hey, stupid woman. What's with the shirt?" Asked Ken, bored of Chikusa's logic.

Chrome looked away from the window and at Ken. He wasn't exceptionally tall and definitely not nice, but he had helped her when she needed it. Both he and Chikusa had welcomed her into their group with open arms...eventually.

"A friend of mine asked me to wear it. We were going to meet up later and talk. It's been about half a year since we'd last seen each other, so she wanted me to wear it so she knew who I was."

Chikusa lightly snorted. "Because we couldn't guess who you were from your fashion or your hair." Chrome just shrugged.

They pulled up to the college, and Chrome quickly got out of the car, pulling her bag with her. "Thanks." she quickly said to Ken and Chikusa, who just responded with silence and a snort. They drove off as she ran into the building.

* * *

Running down the hallways, she slid around a corner and abruptly stopped. Straightening her clothes and catching her breath, she looked around. The university wasn't grand or big or important, much like the town it resided in, but it felt comfortable, the walls in the hallways a light purple, the floors decorated with interesting, mesmerizing patterns.

Having caught her breath, Chrome slid the door open and walked into her class. The room was like most college classrooms, rows and rows of long desks stacked in a way to make them look like a set of bleachers, seats all facing the front of the room which had a small desk and a giant blackboard.

She seemed to have been one of the last people to arrive, but she really didn't mind. She wasn't a morning person in any form of the word, so this usually happened. People had grown accustomed to the cute purple haired girl with the eye patch showing up sometimes seconds before the professor had begun lecturing.

In fact, many boys found it quite easy to approach her _before_ class instead of after, because she showed up at almost the same exact time every day. It was how she had been asked out on first dates by many of her boyfriends.

_Ex-boyfriends _Chrome thought unhappily as she climbed the stairs to her seat.

Chrome slid into her seat as the professor came out of his office, banging his cane on his desk as he politely asked everyone to quiet down.

Her professor wore very interesting clothing. He had a green cloak surrounding a white kimono, and instead of wearing normal shoes he wore clogs. He taught Japanese history, and while Chrome hated the subject, she loved it's teacher, so she was excited for each class.

"Alright class!" he said, smiling. "Graduation is going to be coming up soon, so unfortunately we're going to have to start reviewing key topics for your final." A chorus of groans was heard around the room. "I know, I know. I talked to the principal about it. And he said that no, I may not just pass you all. Who'd a thought? So, I'm going to do the next best thing and actually help you review! Aren't I so nice?"

As he launched into a lengthy lecture on the battle of Sekigahara, commenting on some of Tokugawa's odd quirks as if he knew the man,a sharp knocking was heard from the doorway. The professor stopped midway, his mouth wide open. He pulled out a fan from nowhere and used it to cover everything on his face below his eyes, which stared at the visitor questioningly.

Chrome's eye widened as she looked at a tall italian standing in the doorway. He easily stood at just under seven feet, wearing a classic business suit, a fedora sitting on his head with a crimson red piece of cloth wrapping around just above the brim of the hat. He stared at the professor with cold eyes, his chin length gray hair not obscuring his emerald eyes at all. The whole class froze at the sight of him, the girls swooning, the boys either staring respectfully or glaring jealously.

The word "Mafia" was snickered quietly quite a few times as the new arrival crossed the room, shoulder lightly brushing against the wall behind the professor as he walked to the office, shutting the door behind him.

The professor looked on at his confused class. "Looks like I'm behind on my protection money again. Don't mind him, I'm sure he's simply here to break my legs after class. Now, continuing on..."

Snickers were muffled at their professors sick humor as Chrome stared at the office knowingly.

* * *

After class ended, Chrome went down to the professor's office, quickly opening up the door then shutting it, locking the deadbolt behind her.

Chrome looked around the office. It was slightly bigger then the average professor escape, but then again it needed to be. All the walls were lined with bookshelves crammed full of papers, books, binders, and all forms of mysterious artifacts. His desk was almost as bad, with only a small portion in front of him cleared off so he could set things down in front of him. The only reason no one complained about it was because of a small picture of him and a tall black woman with golden eyes in the corner. It made the whole mess look cute and homey.

"Oh ho, Chrome-chan, so the rumors about your little adventures with some of the elder males around here actually have some basis?" her professor asked playfully. She rolled her eye before turning around. "Of course not." she replied. "People just love talking. Apparently, I'm mysterious."

She sat down across from the professor at his cluttered desk as he reclined in his big chair. She heard a snort from her left. "Apparently." whispered a familiar sarcastic voice.

Chrome turned her head and smiled at her longtime friend and co-worker. "Hayato-sempai. It's a pleasure to see you again. How have you been?"

The Vongola Storm Guardian nodded at his Mist friend. When Mukuro had finally gotten freed form prison, the family grew impatient and demanded the mist gear be given to Mukuro, along with the title of 'Guardian.' Gokudera had been one of the most vocal against the idea, surprisingly. Ever since, Chrome had felt a bit closer to the right arm of the Vongola.

They'd developed a sort of teacher-pupil relationship after she had asked for different training programs to help with her combat skills in general. It still weirded out many people when they saw her refer to him in such a polite manner, considering his personality.

Gokudera slightly smiled at Chrome, who he'd gotten as much of a soft spot for as he could. "Everything going well over here?"

She nodded. "No more stalkers. You and Boss dealt with them quite nicely, and Ken and Chikusa have stepped up security ever since. Thank you for that, again."

He snorted. "You could of easily dealt with them yourself. But the Tenth wanted to deal with them personally. It's been a while since I saw him that angry."

Chrome thought back to that occurrence. Opening her door to find her boss standing there with a thug against the wall, three more on the ground, out cold, beneath his feet. His suit was stained red because of how hard he was hitting them. His eyes were violent in a way she hadn't seen in years either. Why had he gotten so angry because of a few run of the mill stalkers?

She cleared herself of those questions. _Don't get your hopes up, Chrome._ "So, since you're wearing standard Guardian armor and fedora, I assume you're here on business?"

He nodded, eyes losing the bit of warmth they had. "You know about the Alliance meetings, right Chrome?"

She nodded. Once every four months, all the bosses of the alliance got together to discuss matters. They were allowed to bring one bodyguard, but Vongola could bring along a representative from the CEDEF agency and Varia as well, mostly because Tsuna had almost no influence over their actions and someone always had a problem with one or both organizations.

"Is there one coming up?" she asked. Gokudera nodded.

"Yup. Next week."

Chrome waited for the actual reason Gokudera was here.

He siged. "...and the Tenth has requested that if you could, you be his guard for the meeting."

Her eye widened. To be chosen as a guard for their boss at a meeting was the highest honor a mafioso could get, and it was usually awarded to the best warrior of any family. However, since Hibari really didn't like meetings, Gokudera usually went along. It made no sense for Tsuna to suddenly want to switch Guardians, especially since the absence of the raging storm would definitely bother quite a few families.

"W-why?" she asked.

Gokudera shrugged. "Ask him yourself. If you want to do it, he'll be by your house later tonight to pick you up. Do you want to do it?"

Chrome thought about it. _A trip with Boss..._

"Yes." she said softly, slightly blushing.

Gokudera nodded, noticing Chrome's shyness. He had always wondered if something had ever happened between his boss and the mist guardian, but he never asked. "I'll call him then and tell him to get you."

Her professor piped up for the first time since the discussion had started. "Well, Dokuro-san, you should probably be heading off to your next class. I expect that you're probably a bit nervous, but knowing the kind of person Tsunayoshi-san is, I think it'd be best if you just talk to him when you see him. That should help things."

Chrome nodded standing. "Thank you, Hayato-sempai, Professor." She turned and left. As she closed the door, she heard the two of them begin another discussion. Ever since they had met, they had been very impressed with the other's intellect, and had a habit of talking for long periods of time over the oddest higher level subjects.

"So, Kisuke-san," began Gokudera, "Tell me about this theory you have on the relationship between wave energy and this reiatsu..."

* * *

Chrome looked out the window as her uneventful school day came to a close. She ran to a far corner of the school, exiting the building and laying her eye on who she was looking for. A small, black haired woman turned and waved, calling out. "Chrome-chan!"

Chrome walked over, smiling. "The shirt looks good on you!" her friend commented. "Thank you." Chrome quietly replied. She had to bend her neck a bit to look her friend in the eyes, but she didn't really care.

"So...what do you want to do?" Chrome asked.

The other girl shrugged. "Lets go get something to eat." Chrome nodded.

As they walked toward a café that they had frequented when they were dorm mates, they talked about almost everything. Their lives, their jobs, their families.

They talked about possible men.

"WHAT! you STILL haven't hooked up with Tsuna?"

"No..."

"Why not? You've crushed on him for all of your college stay. You were interested at the end of high school. And he certainly isn't the type to say no to at least a date!"

"But...but...what happens if he isn't interested? I heard he likes Kyoko."

"Psh. You could easily charm him from her." At this she stopped. "I've seen you do it."

Chrome gasped. "Only if I'm really wasted...and this is different, these are friends."

Her friend just shook her head. "Go for him. Give it a chance, or he will slip through your fingers."

Chrome slightly pursed her lips. "We're here."

The café was the most popular in town, probably because it was in walking distance of the university. Take really any café, and you could mistake it for this one. It was coffee brown, a blue canopy over the entrance and patio. Chrome walked over slowly to the patio, smiling in apology as her friend made a beeline for an open table, cutting off some people as they were trying to stand up.

They sat down, ordered some coffee, and continued their talk. "You could have any guy you wanted you know." Chrome nodded at the words she'd heard a thousand times.

"Tsuna would fall on his face with a flick of your hair."

Chrome nodded again.

"Then why don't you?"

"..."

"Chrome?"

"...It's embarrassing."

"WHAT!"

"It's different than the other guys...Boss is nice...and cool...and collected..."

"How does any of that stop you from using your charm?"

"He turns it back on me...and he's really cute."

Her friend just shook her head.

Just as Chrome was about to take another sip of coffee, a cellphone ringtone began to sound. Her friend looked down and quietly swore. She flipped open her phone and looked at her messages. She looked up at Chrome apologetically. "It's okay." Chrome said.

"Sorry." her friend said.

"Can we do it again sometime?" was all Chrome asked.

Her friend nodded. "Definitely. I've missed your...calmness. It's a break from the carrot top. And honestly, you're the only quiet person I'm close to besides my brother."

"Quiet...yes. Sane? I'm sure they top me there."

Her friend sighed. " The Vongola are insane, but the quietness is nice when I'm around people who make sense...and wont stop talking about it."

Chrome nodded. "That's why it's so much fun when we all get together."

Her friend momentarily widened her eyes as she stood up, pushing in her chair. "Fun. Right."

She smiled at Chrome. "Bye Chrome."

Chrome smiled back. "Bye...Rukia-chan."

* * *

Chrome paced in her living room. She turned and faced a full length mirror, her eyes drifting over her dress. It was black, stretching down to halfway down her thighs. She tugged at the hem, and looked down, her eye closing as she readjusted her dark red purse on her shoulder. "I look like a whore." she softly whispered.

"I think you look quite good, actually." responded a voice behind her.

She yelped and spun around, her trident materializing to swing at the intruder's head.

She heard a yelp as she watched her boss dodge, falling onto her couch.

"Boss?" she asked quietly.

"AHH! BOSS! I'm so sorry-"

"Ah...its okay Chrome...ow." responded Sawada Tsunayoshi, slowly standing up to his full height. He wore a black dress shirt with a white vest over it, an orange tie finishing off the look. As he stood, he brushed off the white dress pants he wore. His gloves had changed form over the years, and now instead of being mittens, were white cloth gloves that form fitted to his hands, with the Vongola symbol on the glove, a 27 instead of a bullet in the center.

Chrome's eye widened. "What?" he asked. "Is there something on my face?"

Chrome shook her head. "No...Boss?"

"Yeah?"

"You're really tall."

Tsuna looked down at her, a good head higher. He shrugged. "My Italian heritage finally kicked in it seems. You should see Hayato, he's at least a foot higher than me."

She nodded. "He talked to me this morning."

Tsuna momentarily stopped. "Ah...yeah. I guess I did send him to tell you. Whoops." He faked a small laugh, scratching the back of his head.

Chrome was about to ask her boss why he was so uncomfortable when she remembered what he had said first. She blushed. "You really think I look good?"

Tsuna nodded. "Yeah! I asked you to wear what you wanted. This is what you wanted...and it's not a bad choice." he finished, looking her up and down with a raised eyebrow and a light blush.

Chrome smiled. "We ready to go Boss?"

Tsuna ignored her, lost in his own thoughts as his eyes continued their slow trek up and down.

"Boss."

No response.

"...Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna looked up. "Yea- wait, what did you just call me?"

Chrome shook her head and quickly darted for the door.

* * *

Tsuna was driving Chrome's small black car, going a tad above the speed limit, with it's owner in the passenger seat. A ringtone rang throughout the car... once... twice... thrice... the ringing stopped.

Chrome looked over at Tsuna. "Boss...why didn't you get that? It was probably someone important."

Tsuna shook his head. "I'm driving."

Chrome looked out the windshield, jaw ever so slightly clenching. "If I were driving you could talk to all the people you needed to."

Tsuna sighed. "Chrome, we've talked about this. I'm not letting someone with only one eye -and therefore no depth perception- drive."

"I could always use an illusion Boss."

"You can't see out of a fake eye, no matter how much you want it to be real."

"I'm sure Spanner could build me an eye."

"The chance of malfunction is too high."

"This is Spanner. His stuff almost never-"

"Almost!" snapped Tsuna, his hands tightening on the wheel. "Almost means its probably going to happen at least once, especially with a prototype. And one time is all that it takes. One drunk. One mistake. One bullet. And everything..." He didn't finish.

Chrome turned to actually look at the person she was talking to, her face softening. "Boss...what happened to Papan and Maman..." He just shook his head. His grip on the wheel didn't loosen. His eyes glistened in the setting sun.

Neither of them could say a single word till they arrived at the airport.

* * *

The airport was quite large, with dozens of flights leaving and coming in half a day. Chrome looked up at the building, slightly excited. She didn't fly often, but she enjoyed it. The idea that one could go anywhere from any other point made her smile every time she thought about it. Tsuna pulled into a spot in the parking lot directly in front of the airport, somehow finding an unoccupied space. The rest of the lot was filled.

Tsuna stood, slowly closing the door on the parked car. His eyes still looked sad as he looked over the hood of the car to Chrome, who had just shut her door. They held eye contact for about ten seconds.

He shook his head slightly and began to walk to the airport when it started to rain. Neither of them had brought an umbrella, but that was okay, they only had to cross a parking lot.

Tsuna began to slow as they passed through a row of cars. He was deep in thought about what had happened to his parents. His mother, killed in a drunk driving accident the day he graduated high school. His father, shot to death when a hitman mistook him for his target and panicked. They had done so much for the Guardians, so much for everyone. Yet they died just as easily as anyone else would.

Chrome noticed her boss was still upset over their conversation earlier. After the death of his father, Tsuna had watched everyone he knew like a hawk, sometimes not sleeping for days at a time in order to make sure that everyone was safe and in no danger. He didn't want to lose anyone else. No one had the heart to tell him that accidents happen, that someone was going to make a mistake, slip up, and it wouldn't be his fault.

"So...Boss." she asked, trying to get him to talk again. "What's our schedule?"

Tsuna looked up at her, his head momentarily blanking as he processed what Chrome had asked. "We get on our flight here, fly to Italy, get in our hotel, spend the weekend relaxing, then the following five days are the meeting. The weekend will be spent with social events."

Chrome nodded. "Is anyone coming with us?"

"Basil and Squalo." was Tsuna's quick reply.

"Ah." Chrome said, trying to keep the conversation going. She felt guilty for getting Tsuna worked up. She tried to think of all the ways she could get him to cheer up. She mentally sighed, realizing she had always been best with the direct approach.

Chrome stood in front of him, blocking his path as they were about to walk though the last line of cars. "Boss." she said pointedly. "What happened to your parents wasn't your fault. I'm sorry for pushing the driving issue. No one is going to die on you while you're away. So please...smile?" she softened with her last sentence.

Tsuna looked at Chrome as the rain ran down their faces. "Chrome..." he muttered, his voice full of pain. He sounded so cold, so sad, so alone. Chrome wanted to do something so badly to help him.

She reached out with her hand and lightly grabbed his wrist. She lifted it up and pulled as she walked towards him, helping him wrap his arm around her as she hugged him.

He was surprised at both her action and his strong desire to hold her. He'd never really done this before. Reborn had set him up on blind dates in the past, but the woman he talked to were never interested in Sawada Tsunayoshi. They wanted to kiss up to Vongola Decimo. Never had a girl comforted him the way Chrome was now.

He held her tightly as his remorse left his eyes, mixing with the rain as it dripped off his face.

Their eyes closed, enjoying the moment. They didn't care that it was cold out, or that they could feel their bodies begin to react to the wet rain. They didn't want to leave this place just yet. They were engrossed in the warmth that the other provided. The warmth that they never knew they had.

They were probably a little too engrossed.

"VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIII! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING SAWADA!"

Chrome and Tsuna jumped about ten feet, both up and away from each other. They quickly looked toward the airport to see Squalo and Basil standing about twenty feet away, staring at them.

Squalo was dressed in his normal Varia combat outfit, which always bothered people. It was like he was going to switch to assassin mode at any time.

Basil was wearing a full suit an tie like most other mafia, but his suit was the same color as Tsuna's vest, sparkling white. It was an effort to symbolically separate him from the other Vongola. He is the same as them, but at the same time a polar opposite.

"Tsuna-dono, I'm glad thou art enjoying yourself, but we've been waiting for thee for quite a while." said Basil, slightly annoyed. And you know something's wrong when Basil is anything other then calm.

"A...ah, um, s-sorry guys. Didn't mean to keep you waiting." Tsuna quickly tried to cover up for the hug by blowing past it, urging his three companions onward to the airport. Basil handed Tsuna a spare umbrella as he popped out another one for himself and Squalo.

As Chrome silently scooted under the umbrella with Tsuna, they both blushed and looked away. Basil sighed.

_This will be an interesting trip._

**For those of you who didn't read the one-shot, this chapter is an adaption of it. Feel disappointed? Then please, continue reading. Chapter 2 should be up as well. After that, I'm going to update every saturday or sunday. Unless I finish the story early, at which point updates will be daily. Again, please review.**

**Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.**


	2. Chapter 2: Dreams

**Chapter two. I put this up so early because I wanted you all to be able to read something new along with the opener, but I'm probably going to be updating once a week from now on. Reviews are greatly appreciated, they tell me when I'm doing something right.**

**Read on and enjoy.**

They pulled up to the hotel and exited the armored car. As the four Vongola representatives walked towards the entrance, they looked around. It looked like most luxury hotels, with a large fountain in front of the entryway, which made one feel like a celebrity as they entered the hotel walking on red carpet, a lit up canopy blocking any view of the sky. The hotel itself was tall, and in an effort to separate themselves from the norm, the hotel owners had decided to paint the whole main building a sparkling orange. At the top of the thirty story building was a large, glowing, white sign that read 'Dream Sky' with a small pair of rolling red dice on the left side of the tail end of the 'y'.

Chrome marveled at the whole building as she walked next to Tsuna, almost brushing against his side, unconsciously leaning towards him in this new environment. She had stayed at expensive places in the past while on missions, yes. She had dated men with money, yes. But this...this was at a level she had only ever heard about before. She was frightened of her unfamiliar surroundings just as much as she wanted to experience everything there. The urge to cling to her boss was just as powerful as the urge to run at full speed toward the entrance, squealing like a little girl. So she compromised, just staying by Tsuna and staring at everything with a shining eye.

Tsuna, on the other hand, wasn't as impressed. When he went to his first Alliance meeting all those years ago, he'd been told that the Vongola always stayed at the same place. He'd gotten over the Dream Sky Hotel's marvels a long time ago, and now was just embarrassed at the way everyone was acting toward him. The staff knew he was important, and he was treated like a god, the whole hotel remaking itself practically overnight for his stay.

Squalo and Basil walked about a foot behind the others, maintaining a cool complexion and relaxed walk when they really just wanted to rush to their rooms. Even if the hotel tried to get their important patrons every time they visited to participate in various shenanigans, they always had the most fun finding something to do in their actual rooms.

"Vooi, Sawada, can we hurry up? Basil and I have a match starting in..." Squalo consulted his wrist watch, "ten minutes. And Bel will annoy the crap outta me to no end if I miss the deadline."

Chrome looked at Squalo. "Match?"

Tsuna smiled at Chrome. "You'll find out in...well, ten minutes. And we can only move so fast Squalo. You know that the people watching us are going to be very curious if we suddenly bolt for our rooms. And I really don't want to face a torrent of questions at the meeting Monday."

Squalo grumbled. "Can we pick it up even a little?"

Basil shook his head. "No need. While thou were complaining, we reached the door."

It was true. They had arrived at the entrance to the hotel. They walked into the revolving door, everyone tensing. This was a security nightmare. Technically, the only guard they had was Chrome. They were in an enclosed space that could be sealed with an easy modification. They were in full view of everyone outside the hotel entryway and inside the hotel lobby. And Tsuna was right about one thing. One well placed bullet and someone wasn't going to be going home.

But, no one opened fire and as they walked out of the revolving door, they all quietly sighed in relief.

Chrome mentally reprimanded herself. _I need to be on guard at all times for Boss._

"Tsuna-dono. May we leave the checking in to thee?" asked Basil kindly.

Tsuna nodded. "You three can go up to the rooms; would you guys mind showing Chrome the way?"

Before they could reply, Chrome shook her head. "I'm your bodyguard, Boss. It's my job to be by your side."

Tsuna looked down at Chrome. "You don't have to. Now that we're inside the lobby, my intuition can help with any enemies that we may encounter. It's okay."

Chrome just shook her head.

"You sure, Chrome?"

She nodded. "I'm fine Boss."

He shrugged. "Well I guess that the two of yo-" he turned to dismiss Basil and Squalo only to find them on the other side of the lobby, practically prying the elevator doors open to get to the shaft. When they saw that the elevator wasn't at the lobby floor yet, Squalo shouted something about climbing the cable. Only Basil shouting something back about broken thumbs pacified the assassin long enough for the elevator to reach the ground level.

At which point they leapt in, Basil pounding the 'close doors' button as Squalo tried to push them together.

Tsuna sighed. They really wanted to get to their rooms.

Chrome just stared at them, her mouth slightly opened.

Tsuna tugged at Chrome's sleeve slightly. "Lets go get checked in before they reach their rooms and aren't allowed in."

"That would be bad." Whispered Chrome.

"That would be bad." Tsuna agreed, remembering past experiences when he wasn't fast enough getting checked in. The scars...the horror... he shuddered.

He walked over to the front desk, Chrome behind him. The crowd of people in front of him parted ways so that he could easily talk to the receptionist. Whether it was because they knew who he was or didn't want to be involved with his companions, Tsuna didn't know. Or particularly want to find out.

The receptionist was tapping away at a keyboard. "Hello, welcome to the Dream Sky luxury hotel, where the only limits on your enjoyment is what you want and the sk-" she finally looked up to see who she was talking to. Her eyes widened. "M-master Sawada!"

"Hello, Cheryl. It's good to see you again." Tsuna smiled.

"A-ah, thank you, um, sir! So, what can I do for you?" She stood up straight, quickly patting everything down and smiling her brightest smile.

"I need you to unlock the doors to the penthouse and give me the keys."

"Very well! One moment sir." Cheryl turned to the keyboard and began to rapidly type. "Is there any-"

"I need you to unlock the doors before Squalo and Basil arrive at our floor, Cheryl."

Her face paled. "Right away! sorry, sir."

She somehow typed faster and practically jammed the enter button when she hit it. She was about to speak when Tsuna raised his hand, looking upwards. Everyone paused.

Faint yells of triumph could be heard.

Tsuna nodded. "They got in."

Both he and Cheryl visibly relaxed.

"Now, I need confirmation that the security locks have been disabled, the keys for the rooms, and a decorator for our new guest here."

Cheryl looked up and at Chrome for the first time. "Oh? Who's this?"

"Hayato's replacement. Engagements kept him from coming."

Cheryl nodded. "I see. I'll send someone up with you two."

Chrome looked at her. "Decorator?"

Tsuna explained. "The Vongola own the top two floors, and as such we get exclusive rights to the penthouse and the floor below it. When the Vongola purchased the floors, everyone was assigned their own personal room. Only Hayato, Squalo, Basil, Takeshi, Bel, and I have ever used them though. So, since there is a room for you and only you, the hotel lets you decorate and furnish it as you please."

Chrome nodded, hiding her surprise at the new information.

A printing noise could be heard coming from next to Tsuna, and he looked to see Cheryl grabbing a document out of a printer. "Sign here, Master Sawada."

He nodded, signing. "Do I have to get anyone else's signatures?"

She nodded. "But knowing the others, I'm sure its not happening tonight. If your friend here could please sign though, that would help processes."

Chrome took the pen from Tsuna's hand and signed her signature.

Cheryl smiled. "Thank you for your visit, I hope you enjoy everything."

With a few thank you's, Tsuna turned and walked towards the elevator, Chrome a step behind. At the elevator, they were introduced to Chrome's interior designer, a man by the name of Mr. Bracia. The three got into an elevator, and Tsuna typed in a quick code before pressing their floor number.

The elevator moved at normal elevator speed, so it took about a minute for the elevator to reach the top. And the whole time Chrome and Tsuna were tense. Once again, this is a situation that would be difficult to escape alive. If the elevator started to plummet, every second they didn't notice would severely decrease their chance of survival. Tsuna thought of all sorts of plans as they went up. How he'd be able to escape the elevator. The easiest way to keep everyone safe.

Chrome was watching Mr. Bracia closely. The latino wore a nice purple suit, with white gloves and a pocket watch in his breast pocket. He kept glancing at Tsuna while Tsuna was staring at the roof of the elevator. If Mr. Bracia tried to stab him through the hand while his gloves were still in their cloth form, that hand would be unusable. And in this close space, a knife through the chest wouldn't be that easy to prevent. Chrome began to slightly shake from the nerves.

But, Mr. Bracia didn't attack Tsuna, and the elevator didn't start plummeting to the ground.

Stepping out of the elevator as they reached the top floor, Chrome visibly relaxed. Until she heard the sound of machine gun fire and an inhuman scream.

She pushed Mr. Bracia down and charged Tsuna. Quickly pivoting to the side, she slammed into Tsuna with all her might, flinging him against a wall. She followed behind, slamming into him. Her face was buried in his chest a second before she spun around, her back against her boss as her trident materialized in front of her. She glanced down the hall, wondering where the shots came from.

"What the hell?" asked Mr. Bracia as he stood up.

"C-chrome? what're you doing?" asked Tsuna, confused.

She didn't take her eyes off the hallway. "Can't let you get shot." she said.

She felt Tsuna's chest slowly cave as he let out his sigh. "It's okay Chrome. That's Squalo."

She looked at him, surprised. "Squalo uses guns?"

Tsuna shook his head. "I'll show you after we get your room situated."

She looked at him, unsure. "Boss...?"

Tsuna nodded. "We'll be fine. Trust me."

She nodded after a bit, dispelling her illusionary trident as she backed away. Realizing what she had done, her eye widened and she looked at her feet. "Sorry Boss. Sorry Mr. Bracia."

Mr. Bracia just snorted and marched down the hall. Tsuna patted Chrome on the shoulder. "It's okay." he reassured her.

She followed along as the two led the way to her room. She could still hear the occasional spur of gunfire or scream, and it wasn't helping her nerves. But Tsuna, oddly enough, seemed okay with everything, so she didn't say anything.

They reached her room, and Tsuna pulled out a key. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside, holding the door open for the others. Mr. Bracia flipped on the lights, and a large room was revealed. The room was white, with a gray ceiling, brown carpet, and a door at the other end of the room. A queen size bed was against the wall to their left, with a plasma screen TV opposite it, which sat on a dresser. All of Chrome's luggage was on her bed.

"The door leads to a bathroom, and if you want we can knock out a couple of the walls to increase the size of the room." said Mr. Bracia.

Chrome looked at the decorator. "What?" They would knock out walls to make her happy? wow.

"They go to a bit of an extreme, but it really does feel like a home away from home by the time you finish customizing." said Tsuna.

Chrome nodded skeptically.

"Shall we get started, Madam Dokuro?" asked Mr. Bracia, a smile slowly forming on his lips.

Chrome nodded.

"Alright. So, first off, what color do you wish the walls to be?"

She looked at him.

"I'm serious, Madam Dokuro."

"Um..." she thought back to her tiny place professor Urahara lent her. "Dark brown."

"Alright. and the ceiling?"

"Black."

"Are you sure? Professionally speaking, Black wouldn't look very good with brown walls. I would suggest a light color, like a soft orange or yellow. If you wanted the ceiling to be black, then I would suggest a darker color for the walls, such as purple or a dark blue."

Chrome stared at Mr. Bracia. "You're really going to repaint my walls and ceiling based on what I want?" she asked.

He nodded.

Chrome thought for a bit. "Make the walls purple." she changed.

Mr. Bracia nodded, smiling. "Very well, Madam Dokuro."

Tsuna smiled, tuning out the rest of the conversation. Chrome followed the same pattern he and Hayato had. Shock and disbelief that they would actually go to such lengths. After a few joking recommendations, realizing that they were serious. Then getting together with the designer to plan out the room. He watched as Chrome's face lit up with some of the ideas they talked about as they walked around the room, talking about a mirror here, a painting there, maybe an extra light or two.

Chrome went over to her luggage, pulling out a white long sleeve shirt and a small black jacket, pointing out the pictures on both and talking to him about emblems in the carpet. Tsuna resisted the urge to laugh at the thought of what Rukia would do if she had an opportunity like this. Of course, thinking of Rukia brought to mind her tall, quiet, orange haired boyfriend. And suddenly Tsuna didn't feel so good.

"Hey Chrome. I'm gonna be by the elevator. Meet me when you're done." He said, turning toward the door. Chrome nodded, hardly paying attention.

Tsuna sat down by the elevator, resting his head in the corner. He closed his eyes. If he wasn't answering phones he was in a meeting. If he wasn't in a meeting he was going to one. If he wasn't going to one he was visiting someone important. If he wasn't visiting someone important he was fighting. He never really got time to relax. So he decided to take a short nap.

* * *

Tsuna dreamed. He dreamed of a small hill by a lake, a few trees dotting the landscape. Flowers grew. Birds sang. It was beautiful.

He knew this place. He had watched from behind a tree many times as Chrome and Mukuro talked. He knew he was intruding. He knew he shouldn't be here. He never knew why he was even present in the first place.

But he never left. He would listen to their conversations. It had given him valuable insight, both into the lives of his mist guardians and on anything Mukuro found out. He told things to Chrome that no one else knew. Things that didn't make sense to Chrome. Things like 'don't go to this place tomorrow' or 'you should spend a day with Ryohei, for the memories.' Chrome never knew what was going on, but Tsuna, with more access to better information, could usually piece together what he meant. Many lives had been saved inadvertently because of Mukuro.

But now he saw no Mukuro. Only a woman, sitting at the top of the hill, facing the lake. She wore a nightgown, her knees pulled up to her chest, chin on top of her legs. Unlike in the real world, she never wore her hair up here. Here, she was open with everything.

He walked over, sitting next to his female mist guardian. He sat down with his hands behind him for support, leaning back as his legs sprawled out in front of him. He was wearing new clothes as well. Gone were his dress shirt and white vest, gone were the fancy dress pants and shoes. Here, he wore a frilly white cotton shirt, with dark pants. For some reason he could never figure out, he never wore anything on his feet here.

"I must be dreaming." Chrome spoke as he was sitting down. He turned to face her, smiling. "Oh? Why's that?" he asked.

She smiled back, turning her head to face him. Her hair covered the right half of her face, flowing off at the bottom of her cheek, letting Tsuna see her full smile. She even sounded more relaxed here, her voice seeming to be a bit louder and gentle instead of professional and distant.

"Because I'm not nearly lucky enough to be able to have _you_-" here she stopped, poking Tsuna in the side for effect, "be able to magically break into this world and come sit by _me._"

Tsuna scoffed, feeling playful and flirtatious. "Chrome, you make it sound like waltzing into a non-existent world in the mind of one of your companions is HARD. I can't see why it would be."

Chrome laughed. Not a light giggle, a full blown laugh.

Tsuna loved it. He wished she was like this all the time. Heck, even if it was only around him, he'd still love it if she would smile and laugh and wear her hair down in public just like she did here.

Although, he did sometimes wonder what had made her like this. The first few times he had come here and watched, she had acted the same as she did in real life.

"It's your fault." She answered his unasked question. He stared at her blankly. She smiled at the look.

"Before, it was just me and Mukuro-sama in here. So, his personality rubbed off on me, and I became what he wanted. A shell, with a shadow of his power and weaponry so that he could possess me easily and have a second body. But when you..." She stopped there, thinking.

"But when this...DREAM you...started popping up in our world, I began to change. I became brighter, happier, and all around more like your other guardians."

"Why? Why change your personality for just me?" he asked, confused.

She shook her head. "That's the beauty of it. I didn't really change my personality. I just opened my heart to the Vongola. I'm still what you need in a mist guardian, but now I'm not so isolated from all of you."

She smiled at Tsuna again. "In the end, I just wanted to be of use to the two people who gave me a new life."

He stared at her. A slow smile spread across his lips. "Well that's good."

She laughed again. "Yup!" Her smile suddenly faded as she stared at Tsuna, surprised.

"What's wrong?" he asked. This wasn't normal.

"...I did sorta change myself for both of you, as I grew into the positions you needed me to be. In a way, I've begun to view you both in the way you want me to. Because of the way he acts...the way he's so much stronger then me...I view Mukuro-sama as someone godly, sorta like how you feel about Reborn."

She averted her eyes. "And you...I think I started to view you the way you wanted me to long before you knew it yourself...at least, I hope this is what you want..."

She trailed off, biting her upper lip, eyes, yes _eyes_,not meeting Tsuna's. He scooted a bit closer. "What's wrong?" he repeated, arm draping across her shoulders. She leaned toward him, head resting against his chest.

"This isn't the real you, right? The real you is by the elevator, waiting. This is a real dream, and a fake you. Not the other way around."

She looked up to him. Her eyes were glistening, like she was incredibly sad for some reason.

His eyes widened. "Chrome...why does it matter?"

She didn't say anything for a minute. Then, she unfurled her arms from around her knees and put her hands on either side of her body. She lifted herself up, and sat down on Tsuna's lap. Before he could do anything, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Because I need to know that you aren't going to really know anything that goes on here. Because It's impossible for someone as happy and cool and handsome as you to look at me in the way _I _want you to."

She stared at him, eyes boring into his, as she tilted her head, leaning forward.

"Because through all the boyfriends, for the past six years, the only one I've ever loved...is the only one I never had."

She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper.

"...I love you, Tsuna."

She lightly pressed her lips to his. She felt his whole body tense. She didn't care. It was a dream. This wasn't really him. She could throw her heart up against the rocks here because when she woke up, nothing would have changed.

She left her lips slightly parted as she passionately kissed Tsuna, inviting him in. Her nose softly brushed against his as her hold on his neck tightened. she pressed herself against him, hoping that he would move, do something.

His hands slowly crawled up her back, brushing them lovingly. He pulled her in as his lips began to move. He leaned backwards till the ground wouldn't let him move anymore. His arms held her tightly, protectively.

They broke for air. Chrome wanted to say something, maybe an apology, maybe a flirt. She didn't though, too shocked at the fact that barely a second after they had broken contact, he had leaned up and kissed her nose, her cheek, her forehead. His lips slowly traveled from her ear...down her jaw line...to her neck...and all the way to her collarbone.

Chrome softly moaned. It turned into a yelp when he rolled over, pinning her against the ground. "If you really are silly enough to think that I would ever NOT be interested in my mysterious, wonderfully childish, beautiful mist guardian...then I'm just going to have to educate you."

He leaned down for another kiss. This time, he took up her offer, lightly brushing his tongue across her bottom lip.

They stayed like that for quite a while before Chrome broke away. "Tsuna..." she softly whispered, blushing.

"Yes?" he asked, humored at how much it took to finally get her to call him by his name.

"...we're in a dream. On a flowery hill. Alone." She leaned up slightly and whispered in his ear. "And I'm only wearing a nightgown..._and nothing else._"

He felt his legs turn to jelly as he realized what she wanted. He smiled back at her as she tilted her head down, sheepishly staring at him, but not breaking eye contact. He leaned up onto his knees as her arms untwined from his neck, and he took off his shirt.

Tsuna leaned back down and began to kiss Chrome everywhere. She lightly panted as he drew his nose across her collar bone. Her hands reached down and undid his pants, slipping them down around his knees. He kicked them off. As he was doing so, Chrome smiled evilly, then suddenly flipped him onto his back, landing on him as she laughed.

Tsuna wrapped an arm around Chrome's shoulder blades as he smiled, pulling their chests together. He kissed her once...twice...she lifted her legs up from in between his, folding them so that her knees rested by his hips. His other hand slowly began traveling up her leg. He started at her ankle, lightly forming a circle around it. His hand traveled up to her knee, at which point he placed his palm on her knee cap and continued upward.

His hand began to slow at her thigh. Tsuna began pushing the fabric of her nightgown up with his hand. She quietly moaned, her tongue slipping inside his mouth, encouraging him. His hand traveled all the way up to the top of her thigh, then stopping.

"Keep going." she softly moaned. "More..."

With a gulp, Tsuna began to keep going.

_Master Sawada!_

His fingers were just about to cup her...

"Master Sawada!"

Tsuna's eyes snapped open. He looked up to see Mr. Bracia shaking him awake. He was still sitting in the hallway corner, sleeping. It had all been a dream. Her confession. Their love. All gone.

"Sorry about that, Mr. Bracia. Um, did you and Chrome finish with her room plans?"

Mr. Bracia nodded. "We finished about a half hour ago. She fell asleep on the bed after that. So, I came here to try and get the elevator to work, only to find that I can't access it."

Tsuna looked up, shocked awake. "Sorry about that." he said, standing. "It's a security measure. The elevator only works on these floors-"

"If you type in a security code, I know Master Sawada. Can you please enter the code so I may return to the lobby and contact all the necessary people so Madam Dokuro's room may be ready by tomorrow night?" Mr. Bracia looked at him annoyed.

"Ah...yeah." Tsuna walked over to the elevator and opened it, putting in the security code. "There you go." he said.

Mr. Bracia nodded. Just as he was about to enter the elevator, Tsuna grabbed his arm. "Wait, did you say Chrome was _sleeping?"_ he asked.

Mr. Bracia nodded. "For about a half hour now." he repeated.

Tsuna let go of him, backing up. "I-I see."

Mr. Bracia just stared at him. He hit the close door button, hoping to get away from these weird patrons as soon as possible.

Tsuna stood in front of the elevator door for a long time. _Chrome has been sleeping for half an hour...which I'm guessing is how long I was dreaming for. Which means that we were both in the dream world...that wasn't a fantasy made up by me. Chrome...she..._

"Boss?" he heard a soft call behind him.

He turned. Chrome stood behind him. She was patting her hair to try and straighten it out. Her hair that was up in a pineapple. She stared at him questioningly and with a hint of something he now knew was longing. Her form held no relaxation. Her face held no smile. She wasn't radiating happiness.

_I'll change that. _thought Tsuna.

He smiled. "Yes, Chrome?"

"Sorry about falling asleep...I was tired." She looked at him sheepishly, the same way she had in their dream after inviting him to get a bit more intimate than planned.

He blushed at the thought. "Its okay. But its been a couple hours, should we go visit Squalo and Basil before we go to sleep?"

She shrugged. "Why not?"

They got into the elevator. As the doors closed, Tsuna wrapped Chrome in a hug. She froze. He softly rubbed one of her shoulders and said "You need to relax more...especially around me." He backed off, avoiding her gaze.

_This really is going to be an interesting week. _

**Next chapter up Saturday or Sunday. Hope you all enjoyed this one. The summary will start making more sense starting next chapter. In the meantime, please review. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this.**


	3. Chapter 3: Memories and Flashbacks

**Alright. Since I know you can all count, I'll tell you the chapter number to be annoying. We are now on chapter 3...and my first update! Thanks to all those who have favorited or alerted the story already. Special thanks to those who reveiwed. **

**ani****: It's never explained exactly why Tsuna can hijack Mukuro and Chrome's connection. I'm guessing at the end of his fight with Mukuro, when Tsuna grabbed him by the face and very calmly lit his head on fire, "purifying" him as Reborn said, he actually subconsciously used the 'Harmony' factor of his sky flames to connect their personalities. Now Mukuro has morals, and Tsuna can share dreams with him, and through him, Chrome**

**tenchiSaWaDa****: I have a couple different ideas planned, one of which being a 2796 AU. And the Bleach characters are actually kinda important, but this isn't a crossover. No hollows, shinigami, arrancar, anything. As far as Tsuna and Co. know, their college buddies are normal people. And the thought is mutual.**

**On with the story, and please review. Enjoy**

Tsuna lazily cracked his eyes open. Breathing in deeply, a lavender scent filled his nose. He thought it smelled very nice. He looked down as a wave of purple hair moved and he could look into Chrome's eye. He felt her hands against his bare chest, her legs intertwined with his. "Tsuna..." she whispered softly. "Chrome..." he cooed back, smiling at her smile as he softly petted her hair.

They stared at each other curiously for about ten seconds. You could almost hear their brains going _tick tick tick tick tick_

_click_

"BOSS!" "C-CHROME!"

Two very loud BANGS! could be heard from the Vongola Boss's room as Tsuna and Chrome slammed into opposite sides of the room simultaneously.

"BOSS! What...how...why am I here?" she asked, flustered. She became even more flustered as she noticed her boss was in nothing but blue boxers. Chrome couldn't meet his eyes when she realized that she was wearing nothing but her favorite black lace underwear.

She almost fainted when she put everything together. _I was in sleeping in Boss's bed, wearing nothing nothing but skimpy underwear, c-c-cuddling with him while he was in nothing but his b-boxers...did we...?_

Tsuna would have been thinking the same thing if he wasn't looking at Chrome. Her hair was down, flowing off her face the same way it had in their dream. She had her ams pressed up against the wall behind her, not having recovered enough to shield her body from his stare. Or maybe she just didn't care.

He looked her up and down. Even if he didn't know exactly why she was here, he wasn't complaining. Not about Chrome, with her slight frame that came up to his collarbone, or her shocked face that stared at him with a wide open eye, blushing as she ever so slightly breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down as a tiny bit of sweat crawled across her body. He would never object to Chrome wearing such revealing underwear, with strings thinner then shoelace, cloth that hid little while still seeming cute and innocent instead of kinky, and lace that almost begged to be removed...

"Boss."

He looked back to her face. To the lips that ever so softly let that bell like voice escape, curving to make it look like she was slightly pouting, which really didn't help things. Lips that Tsuna had dreamed -literally- would fit his...

"Boss!"

_Too much examining._

This time Tsuna got the hint that he had been watching her too much. Instead, he desperately looked about the room. He looked at the bed with its dark purple sheets that matched her hair in color but not feeling.

_Not helping._

He looked toward the T.V., which had an add on it for an "Exercise in Exotic Erotic Love Making in Africa, channel 501."

_Definitely not helping._

His eyes quickly darted around, looking for something innocent to look at. His eyes finally fell on the closet. Yes! The perfectly normal, oak doored closet. Well, it wasn't exactly normal. It was a walk in closet, with plenty of spare suits and causal clothing and armor and a couple fedora's. And with enough space in the center to try everything on. Space that you could fit a small couch into. Or a mattress. And the door wouldn't be that hard to open while holding Chrome in his arms. Then he could just back up into the closet, slowly closing the door and locking it from the inside as all light disappeared and he crawled onto the mattress with her waiting...

_What am I, 16? I really need to calm down._

Finally, he just stared at the striped sky blue and white walls. Nothing sexual about them. They were just walls. They were white. And blue. Nothing mildly erotic, arousing, or in anyway passionate about them...unlike the locks of purple hair hanging down her face or the black lace that he was sure covered pinks and purples and creamy whites of their ow-

_GAAAAAAAAAHH!_

Chrome was calmed down as much as she could be in this situation. She looked down at the simple brown carpet, searching for something to wear. Not seeing any suspicious piles of clothing, she looked around at the furniture to see if she could find any clothes there. Tsuna had a small stand next to the double bed he..._they_...had been sleeping on. On the other side of the normally sized hotel room was a dresser. Next to the dresser, a T.V. stand with a T.V. on top of it. The ad that had helped push Tsuna off the deep end didn't faze Chrome at all, mostly because in the back of her head every time she got even moderately close to Tsuna, at any point in the past three years, she'd been having similar thoughts running through her brain. College does that to some people.

Chrome closed her eye._ Not a good time to fantasize_. She turned to her left, looking in the back corner of the room at the desk. It had papers scattered across it, along with a briefcase, some pens, and Tsuna's gloves. But none of her clothing.

She looked back at Tsuna, who had a facial expression similar to that of an alcoholic who had just been shown a goblet of two hundred year old wine and told that if he drank even a little of the liquid, he would die from the rat poison mixed in. His face screamed longing and the understanding that if he reached for what he wanted, he'd get but a fraction before Chrome's trust in him would be forever shattered. But she really did look good in anything she wore...

"Boss...do you have any clothes I could borrow?"

Tsuna, finally, _finally_, snapped out of his daydreaming. "Wh...Chrome, no one is on this floor but us. Squalo and Basil probably spent the night up in the penthouse, the security code for the elevator randomizes nightly, and the only people who still remembers the master code that was erased from every database this place owns...are the three of us. You should be fine walking to your room to grab a change of clothes."

Chrome nodded. With a quick thank you, she rushed out of the room, blushing.

* * *

Tsuna felt the warm water rush down his back, hitting his neck and running down past all the scars and burn marks as he faced away from the stream, hand against the wall in front of him as he slightly leaned forward, one foot on top of the other.

He tried to remember what exactly happened last night, not knowing that Chrome was in her shower as well, thinking the same things.

He and Chrome went up to the penthouse to check up on Basil and Squalo.

* * *

_Flashback #1_

_

* * *

_

They found the doors to whatever room the two had been using locked. From the other side of the door, they heard inhuman screams that were quickly overshadowed by a large boom that sounded like a sniper rifle. All forms of music played in the background as Squalo laughed savagely and Basil yelled triumphantly. The screams abruptly stopped with the sound of gunfire.

Tsuna knowingly turned around as Chrome stared warily at the door. "Boss?" she asked. "What are they doing in there?"

Tsuna shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. They really don't seem like the type to do that kind of thing, but they are. I'll just have to show you later on when they aren't as...engrossed in what they're doing."

Chrome nodded. Then she had yawned, and they had decided to head back down to their rooms to sleep and hopefully try and recover from jetlag.

As they entered the elevator and hit their room floor button, Tsuna leaned against a side of the elevator as Chrome stood pencil straight, shooting glances at Tsuna. When they exited the elevator, Tsuna lightly grabbed her arm. "Chrome." he softly stated, yawning afterwords.

"Chrome." he repeated. "You know you can tell me anything. I'm here for you. Because I know we think a lot more alike then people realize."

She stared at him. "Wh-what do you mean Boss?"

"You know."

She looked down. _It was a dream...it was a dream...it was a dream_. That was the only thing passing through her mind. She didn't look back up as Tsuna sighed and started walking to his room. When she couldn't hear him anymore, she clenched her fists and ran after him.

Just as Tsuna had been about to open his door, he heard a soft _tmp tmp tmp_ coming from behind him. He turned to see Chrome stop next to him. She looked up. "A body guard needs to make sure that her charge is safe before she can relax." She said.

Tsuna smiled. Whatever the reason, he would see Chrome again before he went to bed. He said "Well then you better come in and help me check out the room."

He opened the door for her and followed her in. He shut the door behind himself and slowly began to walk to his bed. Chrome was already inspecting Tsuna's T.V. to see if anything was hooked up to it to make it explode. Satisfied that the T.V. hadn't been turned into an improvised explosive, Chrome quickly darted to the other side of the room to start looking over his desk.

Tsuna watched in mild amusement. He always enjoyed seeing her so concentrated, with a lock of hair falling from its tie as she would bend over to inspect a table leg, or her bottom lip slightly curled in so she could lightly bite it when she was taking apart the remote to make sure it didn't contain anything bad. Like napalm. Or pictures of Ryohei in a bathing suit.

Tsuna's smile quickly faded when she went for his briefcase. He quickly ran over, grabbing it and holding it close to him. "Ah, Chrome! I can get that, really. You should head back to your own room, make sure everything is fine there. Thanks for sweeping my room."

"It's fine, Boss. Just let me quickly check through this to make sure it didn't get attached to a bomb-"

"I can easily defuse a bomb Chrome. And shouldn't I be the one to look through it, make sure nothing is missing?"

"You can do that after I know that it isn't going to blow you up."

"It's fine Chrome."

"No it isn't. What's wrong Boss? I'm just doing my job-"

"No!" Tsuna said, a little louder then needed. Chrome looked at him, then looked down slightly. "Fine." she whispered.

Tsuna felt like an absolute scumbag. "No, Chrome, that's not really what I meant...it's just-"

He didn't get to finish his haphazard apology because just as he let his guard down, Chrome smiled, quickly grabbed the briefcase and jumped onto the bed, cradling her stolen package. Tsuna dove after her with a startled "Hey!" trying to reclaim whatever secret was hidden inside it.

She rolled until the briefcase was pinned underneath herself. Forming an illusion, she created a titanium dome over the case. Using more illusions, she unlocked and opened the briefcase. They both waited for an explosion of some sort. Chrome was so excited that she had gotten the case away from Tsuna and that she was being such a good bodyguard that she failed to notice Tsuna partially laying on top of her.

Tsuna was so desperate to get the briefcase back that he failed to notice his arms on either side of her's, his head resting on her shoulder as he looked down her body, watching the dome so that he could grab the case as soon as he could...and noticing his Mist Guardian's...well shaped...figure.

Tsuna closed his eyes. _Briefcase, Tsuna, briefcase!_

He opened his eyes just as the mist illusion began to dissipate. In a flash, Chrome flattened herself as Tsuna tried to reach for the contents of the case. Chrome began to giggle as she rolled, trying to keep the briefcase from her boss. Even if this was probably one of the most embarrassing things she had ever done with Tsuna, she really didn't care at 3 in the morning.

Chrome finally came out on top, holding a bunch of papers against her chest as she leapt off the bed, Tsuna holding an empty briefcase. She giggled again, looking down. "What's so secretive about all this-"

She stopped as a photo slipped out from the middle of the pile. Forgetting about everything else in her hands, she dropped the mass of papers and picked up the lone photo. It had been taken a few months after Chrome had entered Karakura university, and Rukia had decided to take her new friend out to the local fair.

* * *

_Flashback #2_

_

* * *

_

Of course, with Chrome's missing eye and Rukia's height problem, neither of them could drive very well. So Rukia called up one of the guys she knew, whom she introduced as Kurosaki Ichigo. Well, actually, she had introduced him as the stupid carrot top, but eventually Chrome figured out his name.

Rukia had by now figured out Chrome's little crush on Tsuna, and had previously contacted the boy and guilted him into showing up at the fair. Chrome was really quite surprised when he met them at the entrance, having already paid for their tickets in. Ichigo and Rukia had thanked Tsuna quietly, although it seemed as if they were shouting at him compared to Chrome. She had accepted her ticket without even looking him in the eye. It had been forever since she had seen him in casual clothing. With his thin, tight, white long sleeve shirt under a heavier, thicker black t-shirt, and a nice pair of khaki pants, Tsuna seemed to radiate serenity as he stood there. This of course was quickly dissipated about five seconds after they started walking around the fair when Tsuna slipped on a few blades of grass, but to Chrome her Boss would always be her shining light.

The fair itself was normal. It had a section for riding theme park rides that had been quickly set up in preparation for the event. Lining the walkways around and between the rides was stall after stall of games. And in between the games, rides, and the entrance, was stand after stand after stand of food. All in all, a normal looking fair.

Tsuna sighed as he knew it wouldn't be like that for long.

Then followed an evening of craziness that seemed to follow Tsuna everywhere, which was being augmented by the weirdness that always seemed to happen around Ichigo. Not to mention the fact that Ichigo had a habit of challenging Tsuna to random stalls, where Tsuna would pay, Ichigo would win, and then they would both run very quickly when Ichigo picked up something for his little sisters or one of his other female friends...but never Rukia.

By the time the night had ended, all of the Guardians had swung by to bother Tsuna at least once, and everyone with the exception of Mukuro and Hibari had stuck around. They had also brought I-pin, Kyoko, Haru, Reborn, Bianchi, Ken, Chikusa, and MM along with them. Also, a tall latino by the name of Chad had shown up, accompanied by a womanizer that wouldn't stop talking to Bianchi named Mizuro, a wannabe womanizer that wouldn't stop talking to Kyoko and Haru named Keigo, a man with glasses who seemed a lot like a more open version of Chikusa named Uryuu, a extremely endowed woman named Orihime, her almost bodyguard of a friend Tatsuki, and a red pineapple head who really seemed to love stepping on Ken named Renji.

The mayhem they caused can't be described in words.

The night ended very nicely in Chrome's opinion. One of the stall managers had invited them all over and had them play a sort of memory game. They were sat in front of a board of 100 upside down cups. Under the cups were 75 black chips, 15 red chips, 6 blue chips, 3 yellow chips, and 1 white chip. It cost 300 yen to play. You could pick up any one cup. If the chip was black, you lost. If it was red, you won either 200 yen or the right to pick up a second cup. If you got a blue chip, you won either 400 yen or a small prize. A yellow chip was 1000 yen or a medium prize. the White chip was 2000 yen or a giant prize. If you won anything above red, you could pay an extra dollar to pick up another cup. If the chip color was the same, you went up one prize level. You could keep doing this until you got up to the white level, if you were lucky. If you drew the white chip, you could choose to turn back in your prize and go again with the full one hundred. If you got that one in ten thousand chance of getting the white chip AGAIN, you would get five times the amount of money and three giant prizes of your choice.

The idea of that much money appealed to everyone. They all took their turns going for the white chip. After Uryuu lost three times in a row and whipped out his wallet to try again, they all agreed that someone could try up to five times in a row before they had to move on to someone else, and then they could go back once everyone had finished.

Tsuna stood in the back, watching the board carefully as people picked up cup after cup after cup. After each time someone tried, the manager would press a button and the cups would move along the tracks they were sitting on, underneath the board.

After everyone had tried five times the only people left to go were Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Reborn.

Reborn opened his mouth to say something when everyone urged him to go, but Tsuna stopped him, lightly sitting his hand on top of his tutor's fedora. Tsuna looked at Yamamoto and nodded. Yamamoto walked forward nonchalantly, sitting down in front of the board and closing his eyes. He quickly reached forward as the manager began to speak and picked up a cup randomly. It was a black one.

"Ahhhh. So sorry. Do you wish to try again?" asked the manager. Yamamoto just turned to Gokudera, who shook his head. Yamamoto set down another 300 yen. "Let's go!" he laughed.

This kept up for close to ten minutes, Yamamoto blowing close to 30000 yen. Finally, as he was about to set down the last of his money, Gokudera put a hand on his shoulder. "It's good, baseball brain. Thanks for the help."

Yamamoto nodded. "You gonna be able to prove it?" he asked, losing his trademark smirk.

Gokudera shrugged. "If I can't, the Tenth will."

All the Karakura natives kept glancing between the three friends. The Namimori natives were all warily eyeing the stall manager. They knew something was up from the way Yamamoto and Gokudera were talking.

Gokudera sat down, setting 300 yen down on the table. "Let's go old man." he said.

The stall manager smiled. "Alright then!" he said, randomizing the cups.

Gokudera's eyes slowly moved with a particular cup. When everything stopped moving, he paused for a second. Then suddenly his hand shot out to grab a different cup. Everyone jumped at his reflexes as he whipped the cup off to show everyone what no one else had been able to accomplish. He had found the white chip.

The store manager stared. Before he could say anything, Gokudera said "I'd like to try for the ultimate prize."

He set the cup down on the chip and glared at the store manager.

The manager stared at the cup. Then at Gokudera. Then back at the cup. He gulped and pressed a button.

The cups randomized again. Gokudera's eyes never left those of the store managers'.

The cups stopped moving. It was so quiet a tiny _clink _could be heard. Everyone waited in expectation to see if he could do it.

Gokudera reached out, and grabbed a cup. He lifted it up...and exposed a black chip.

Everyone groaned. As they turned away in anger and disappointment, Tsuna held up a hand. "It's my turn now."

Mizuro just shook his head. "You're going to lose. So why bother?"

Tsuna looked back. His eyes, for the first time that night, held a calmness that none of the new people had ever seen before. He wasn't wimping out on challenges or running away from baby goats now. This was an entirely new person.

"It's because I'm going to lose that I want to play."

Tsuna looked over to Uryuu. "You noticed too, right?"

Uryuu nodded. "I'm glad someone else was able to pick up on it. I didn't have the money to gamble on my hunch..." he trailed off as Tsuna nodded, understanding.

"What? What hunch?" asked Ichigo.

"The hunch that this man just robbed 1500 yen off every one of you." said Reborn darkly.

Tsuna walked over and set down 300 yen. The man picked it up almost defeatedly. He randomized the cups and Tsuna closed his eyes.

"There are ten black chips in the seven rows in front of me. The back row contains the missing five blacks, along with four red chips and a blue chip. The row in front of that one is all red chips, and the remaining row contains the missing chips...except for the third on the right, which has a black chip. An extra one."

Before the stall manager could do anything, Gokudera jumped forward and restrained him, and Yamamoto quickly picked up all the cups. The chips were laid out exactly as Tsuna had predicted they would be. Including the extra black chip. Everyone would have been angry at this if it weren't for the fact that the loser of the group just turned out to be _psychic!_

"I'm not psychic. My intuition is just very good." Tsuna replied to everyone's unanswered thought. Which creeped them out more.

Yamamoto meanwhile, softly pressed down on the black chip only to have the spot indent slightly before spinning. Now the white chip was exposed, sitting innocently. Tsuna made eye contact with the pale faced manager. "You expose this chip only once a group, to show people it can be found. Then you play mind games with them so that they won't keep track of what they're doing, going into a frenzy to try and get the promised 10000 yen. Subliminal messaging. Implied meanings. All that. Very subtle...you're very good at what you do."

The manager looked down. He yanked himself out of Gokudera's arms and asked. "What do you want?"

Tsuna stood. "You will pay back my friends everything you owe us. You will then reward me with two medium prizes, in thanks for not telling your boss Dino what exactly you've been doing here."

The man started, eyes widening. "Wh-wh-what?"

Tsuna smirked. "I recognize the Chivarone interrogation tactics when I see them."

The manager nodded, and then bowed. When he stood, he began handing back the money and asking Tsuna "What prizes would you like, sir?"

Tsuna tried to say something, but it was drowned out with yelling and screaming as the children tried to decide for him. Gokudera stood up and started shouting back at them that the Tenth obviously wants the awesome teddy bear in the suit and fedora. Then Yamamoto interjected that doesn't he already have one of those? and after the name "Chappy" was mentioned all hell broke loose as to what exactly Tsuna wanted. Everyone was yelling and shouting and tackling. Well, except one person.

Tsuna walked around the massive shouting match brawl that was going on as he grabbed a poofy undead bear. He picked it up and walked around the still arguing crowd. He handed it to Chrome, who stared at him, disbelief coloring her eye.

"For not volunteering your opinion like everyone else." he answered her unasked question. "And for inviting me along." In a rare flash of courage, he quickly pecked her on the cheek. "It was fun." He said smiling. She was frozen for a moment before she began madly blushing, stuttering out a thank you.

Tsuna smiled even wider, quickly running back and grabbing a second one. "And, I can get a second one for me!" he stated proudly. Then he began to blush at his own actions, realizing that he must have implied to the bystanders that had gathered to watch the fiasco of a discussion his friends were having that he and Chrome were together.

Which he didn't mind. He would be lying if he said he hadn't gotten interested in Chrome since learning more about her. But he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable, and with the way everyone was staring at them, well, there was only one way his shy mist guardian would react.

"Ch-chrome? Do you wanna go somewhere...else...you know, to get food and drop these off at your car!" he quickly finished.

She nodded, not meeting his eyes. They walked off towards the parking lot.

As they passed by a photographer, he quickly ran over to them. "Hey! You guys look like you've been enjoying yourselves. How would you two like a picture?" he asked, all excited.

As Tsuna was about to decline, Chrome nodded. "Sure." Tsuna's head turned about 150 degrees to look at her. Her blush had faded, her cheeks only slightly pink as she looked at Tsuna. "Please Boss." she asked.

He couldn't say no to her.

They positioned themselves in front of a big tent that the circus attractions were held in. The photographer got out his camera and pointed it at Chrome and Tsuna, who were standing right next to each other, faintly smiling. Just as he said "Cheese!" to take the picture, Chrome silently wrapped an arm around Tsuna's, holding her undead teddy bear in front of her with the other. She leaned over and tilted her head up, closing her eye and kissing Tsuna on the bottom of the jaw below the ear.

The shutter closed on a wonderfully romantic picture.

* * *

_End Flashback #2_

_

* * *

_

One that apparently, Tsuna had kept his copy of ever since then.

She held it in her hands, reminiscing in fonder memories.

Which is why she wasn't paying attention when Tsuna had wrapped his arms around her. "You worry me sometimes." He whispered to her softly. "Sometimes you're warm and open to me. Other times you ignore my existence. Either way, you never really tell me when something is wrong. I can only keep you safe...keep you happy...if you're right in front of me. So please..." he paused. "Spend the night with me?"

She looked up at him. She had waited for those words for years. Her joy was slightly diminished when Tsuna said "We don't have to do anything...I just don't want you to go yet."

_Even if we don't do anything _Thought Chrome tiredly _This will still be one of the best nights of my life._

_

* * *

_

_End Flashback #1_

_

* * *

_

_So. _Thought Tsuna, finally remembering. _That's what happened._

He sighed, flipping the shower to cold to help himself wake up and calm down. _I can't be spacing out when I next see Chrome. She needs to know that I think about more things then her underwear._

_

* * *

_

Chrome sighed as she lay on her bed. She had changed into a light yellow summer dress, with white swirls decorating it. She crossed her ankles, her feet clad in small white boots, as she thought about what she should do now.

She had gotten a notification from Mr. Bracia that the people who would be remodeling her room would be there from noon to eight, and she would be able to sleep in the room that night.

So she had to find something to do all afternoon. Great.

Chrome rolled onto her side and thought about all that had happened last night. _The dream. The way Boss started acting weird after it. The picture. His request. I wonder...is he serious?_

She jumped when her phone began to ring. She flipped it open and answered. "Hello?" she asked.

"CHROME! Why the hell haven't you answered your phone until now!" Rukia shouted at her.

Chrome pulled the phone away from her ear then slowly brought it back. "I was sleeping with boss." She replied absentmindedly.

"...WHAT!"

Chrome sat straight up. "N-NO! not like that. We just...took a nap."

"A nap?"

"Mhmm."

"In the same bed?"

"...Yes."

"And exactly how much clothing were you wearing when you woke up?"

"..."

"I thought so."

"No...we really didn't do anything." Chrome replied. Desperately hoping for Rukia to believe her.

"And how do you know?" Rukia asked.

Chrome blushed. "Be...because..."

"Because...?"

"..."

"Chrome!"

"BECAUSE I STILL HAVEN'T SLEPT WITH ANYONE AND WOULD HAVE NOTICED THIS MORNING IF I'D HAD MY FIRST TIME!" Chrome quickly blurted out, shutting the phone and clapping a hand over her mouth. She'd done it now.

Her phone began to ring again. She picked it up and answered it. "Hello." she said warily.

"You are a senior in COLLEGE and you still haven't slept with anyone?" Rukia asked in disbelief.

"Yes..." was Chrome's reply.

"Oh."

"..."

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised. You're very hard to coax out of your shell. But I thought someone, _anyone_, besides Tsuna or I could do it."

"..."

"So...do you plan to lose it to your Boss then?"

Chrome stiffened. She resisted the urge to shout 'GOD WILLING' and instead quietly replied. "No. Not if he's not interested at least."

"Okay. Well, at least that's a start between the two of you."

A soft knocking came from Chrome's door.

"I gotta go, Rukia-chan. Talk to you later."

"Give an extra kiss to Tsuna for me." Rukia said playfully as she hung up.

Chrome blushed. _It's not a bad idea..._

She opened her door for Tsuna. He wore a light blue polo shirt that stretched down to just below his waist, covering the top of his black jeans, which stretched down to his nice pair of white sneakers.

"Hey." he said calmly.

"Hey." she responded, not moving from her doorway.

"So...you hungry?" he asked.

Chrome nodded.

"You wanna go get Basil and Squalo so the four of us can get something to eat?" He asked.

Chrome mentally sighed. "No chance of us going by ourselves?" she asked.

Tsuna's eyes widened. Chrome quickly sucked in some air. _Whoops. Think before you speak, Chrome._ "Uh...let's go get the others..." She tried to push past him.

He put a hand on her chin and lifted her face up. "Squalo will kill me if he finds out I went out for food and didn't get him anything, and Basil will fall into a minor depression. That's the only thing stopping me from grabbing you bridal style and running to the nearest restaurant."

Tsuna stopped, clearing his throat as he began to walk away so he didn't have to see her facial expression at his next words. "If however, you are still open to the idea, we can go out tomorrow night."

He stopped when he heard her reply.

"I'd like that."

_She said that...she said that...she said that...YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!_

Chrome shut her door as she walked up next to Tsuna, who was lost in his own happy thoughts. She looked at his face, waiting for his reaction as she slipped her small hand into his gloved one. His eyes widened quickly before returning to their normal size.

He glanced down at her, smiling. And for the first time in a while, she felt a smile break out on her face as well. "Shall we go wake the others, Boss?"

Tsuna nodded. "Lets go."

Smiling, he led the way to the elevator, his thumb softly stroking the back of her hand.

**Oh the fun that is had when quiet people get together late at night, hormones raging.**

**I apologize for the slow beginning. A plot beyond Tsuna's attempts to woo Chrome will start to appear soon (Because really. When does anything ever go the way Tsuna needs it to?) **

**And the update is a day early because I plan ahead, and the weekend must be spent catching up on homework. The joys of the letters 'AP'**

**Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.**


	4. Chapter 4: Heroes

**Thanks to all those who reviewed. The support is welcome.**

**Zessi: Thank you. I'll try and maintain the quality in future chapters.**

**ani: Ah, my attempts at humor aren't all for naught! And the gloves are their mostly because ever since the ring battles, Tsuna seems to have had them with him at all times. In his years, he's simply gotten warier.**

**TenchiSaWaDa: Thanks. My romantics won't be changing any time soon, so no worries there. **

**Izanagi No Ookami: All will be revealed this chapter. and YES! I'M SORTA FUNNY SOMETIMES!**

**Also, I did post this on a saturday. I'm sticking to my schedule. I'm totally not posting because I'm excited about the feedback and want you all to read more.**

**Really.**

**Please review, and enjoy. I hope you like it.**

"VOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! IT'S THREE IN THE AFTERNOON! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU WAKE US SOONER TRASH!"

Squalo grabbed a cellphone from a lady standing next to him and threw it at Tsuna. Chrome reached out and caught it, flipping it closed and making wings grow out of it with illusions, letting it fly back to it's owner, who stared at the phone calmly flapping in front of her before fainting.

Tsuna sighed. "Basil, could you call 119 or whatever the equivalent here is and have her sent to the hospital for safe keeping? We'll call you when we find someplace."

Basil nodded. "Of course, Tsuna-dono." He whipped out a phone from the pocket of his shorts and dialed three numbers before quickly speaking in italian.

Tsuna looked at Squalo just in time to have his petite mist guardian grab his arm and roughly jerk him to the side, helping him avoid getting punched in the face by Squalo. The angered Varia member turned and yelled at her "WHY THE HELL DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?"

"It's my job to protect the three of you." Chrome said calmly. "Even if it's from each other."

Squalo growled softly. "Then maybe I should start with yo-" he was cut off when an extreme heat and killing intent was given off from next to Chrome. All three stopped what they were doing.

Tsuna stood to his full height, looking Squalo in the eye. He smiled. "Chrome is doing her job Squalo. She's protecting us. I suggest, _for you own good_, you don't try to mess with her." he turned and continued walking down the street they had been on when Squalo had finally noticed the time.

All four of them were dressed in normal clothing, Basil in a striped gray and green shirt with khaki shorts, and Squalo in a white wife beater and blue jeans, a long flat object wrapped in velvet cloth hanging off his right shoulder. They were in the middle class end of town, trying, and failing, to blend. They had practically fled the Dream Sky, avoiding everyone, dodging and shoving bystanders as they barely outran the hotel attendants who were shouting about everything from guest appearances with the hotel managers to a complimentary dinner that night at the dinning hall. The attendants were accompanied by a host of women screaming something about being allowed to mother children.

This last little bit had irked Chrome quite a lot, especially the death glares the fangirls had been shooting her, the way they screamed Tsuna's name, and the fact that the four of them had been followed all the way into town by said girls. Finally, Chrome came up with the brilliant idea as they were passing a dark alleyway to create the illusion of an older teenage boy, shirtless, with a very pale yet muscular body and bronze colored hair that stuck straight up for some reason. He was standing at the other end of the alleyway with a teenage brunette hanging on to him, trying to keep him from leaving the alley. A shirt was lying a few feet form the two figures.

Tsuna and Basil actually went back to the alleyway to watch the fangirls for a few seconds as they visibly attacked the girl, screaming about their love for the man. At the first word of "Eddy-kins!" the two left quickly, feeling slightly sick to their stomachs.

And now here they were, in the middle of town, with it's slightly dirty streets, renaissance period architecture, and very good smelling italian cooking.

The particular building they were in front of was a bit smaller and wider then the two story apartments around it. A very old looking wooden sign stood at the top of the slanted roof, faded red paint naming the building "IL ROSPO"

"The Toad." said Chrome matter of factly.

"Odd name for a restaurant." continued Tsuna, slightly perplexed.

"VOOOOI. Lets just go get some food." finished Squalo, marching into the restaurant.

Which they quickly re-classified as a pub. The inside of the building was almost as dirty as the outside streets. The wood floors were all different shades of brown for god knows what reason. The big, open room was packed full of old tables, the exception being in the corner opposite of the entrance, where the bar was located. The bar itself was in perfect form, the spirits behind the bartender stacked ten rows thick and fifty bottles long, the plaster barrier that separated the bar tender from his guests supporting a polished ceramic top. Looking around, Tsuna steered the group to the corner across from the bar, as far away from the many people gathering in the center of the room, talking about some game that was going to be on in a few hours.

They all sat down, Tsuna whipping out a phone and texting Basil while Squalo waited impatiently for a waitress and Chrome scanned the room, looking at possible exits. She was sitting in the corner of the table that could get the most of the room in her view, her back to the corner. She thought she had a pretty good handle on this place, and she didn't see any visible threats, nor sense any illusions. And her phone hadn't alerted her of any flame signatures in a mile.

The noise was loud, but not deafening. They could hear each other talk, barely. They could distinguish between voices, barely. But it was still pretty loud. That's why it was obvious when everything quieted down after Tsuna waved a hand to Basil, who had just arrived, and the CEDEF officer replied "Greetings, Tsuna-dono!"

Everyone in the room froze, including Basil's companions. As one, every head in the pub turned toward the back corner as Chrome readied her Gear. It was obvious everyone in town had heard the name "Sawada Tsunayoshi." The occupants were eyeing Tsuna with disbelief, respect, and just a bit of fear.

Squalo slowly looked around before glaring at the sheepish outside advisor. "Now look at what you've done, stupid scum." Squalo stood, reaching onto his back for the cloth container. "Squalo..." Tsuna trailed off, a warning hint in his voice.

This shocked the other guests even more. Sawada Tsunayoshi was a godly figure, mostly treated as a rumor. But Superbi Squalo was the person mothers told grumpy children about at night if they didn't go to bed. The fear was evident now.

And then a whisper was heard. "Is that her?" asked a tiny voice from the middle of the crowd. Another tiny voice replied "Shut up stupid! look at who she's with. They'll eat us alive!"

As one or two of the adults at the front turned around, a small figure darted out from in between their legs. The figure ran and ran...right into Squalo.

Squalo looked down as a little girl in a red polka dot dress stood up. Looking at who she had just bumped into, the girl froze, her long dirty blonde hair falling off her face as she gaped at the assassin. Her brown eyes grew wide as Squalo's blue orbs bored into her. See, normally this wouldn't bother any of the mafioso at the table. But after meeting arcobaleno and seeing the power that the Ninth generation still maintained long after their glory years, you learn quickly to ignore age. So when a person suddenly bull rushes you from a group of people that had been staring at you with fear, your guard goes up pretty quickly if you're high level Vongola.

Which is why Chrome couldn't understand why she wasn't bothered by the little girl. She was slightly shocked at her appearance, yes. But Chrome wasn't really that suspicious of her. She looked like a normal little girl. Well, she did have a strange birth mark on her left cheek. It was hard to see because of the girl's tan, but you could see it. A small blotch of brown that almost looked like a horse.

Squalo was just staring at the girl, but you could see the tension was getting to the other guests. Chairs were being slowly raised, beer bottles being picked up, tables being quietly lowered to a better position. The bartender was reaching under the bar, probably for a shotgun.

Squalo looked up sharply, glaring at the man directly in front of him. None of them looked like trained assassins. He could take them all easily. He untied the top of his cloth package, slowly drawing out a long sword blade. He brought it to the top of his right hand. Turning his head slightly to bite the top of his shirt, he pulled up on the strap and retrieved a base that had been hidden inside his armpit. Not moving his eyes, Squalo expertly slid on the base, bringing the blade to it. With a soft click, the shark had shown it's teeth.

The little girl looked like she was ready to faint. The fact that the blade was three times as long as she was tall would frighten anyone, but when it suddenly flashed with rain flames, that sent her over the edge. She began whimpering, tears sliding down her face.

Basil, while feeling pity for the child, wasn't going to be taking any chances. He had already pulled out his bladed boomerang, igniting it with flames as well. He wouldn't kill any of them, but he chose the safety of his friend over the lives of these people.

Tsuna was about to go through the roof with anger. Squalo was obviously overreacting. And now his actions were starting to affect Basil. He knew he had to say something, but if he stood to try and stop Squalo, he had a feeling all hell would break loose. Right now, a pin dropping would start a bloodbath. He was sure that if he, Vongola Decimo, said anything, the other patrons would probably go crazy with fear. The tension was even starting to affect him. He could feel a bit of sweat start to travel down the side of his face. _I have to stop this now._

Just as Tsuna was about to say something, the little girl gasped. "B-b-big sis?" she called. This would be a normal reaction, for a little girl to call out to a sibling for help...if she wasn't staring right at Chrome.

Everyone's hearts stopped, Chrome's included. "Big sis?" the girl called again. "D-do you reme-member me? You saved me two years ago, on my birthday. Some bad men in suits-s took me from my room. You, you knocked them all out when they pulled out a really big gun. You took me ho-home and help-ped my parents make cake and wished me a happy birthday and g-g-gave my parents some money for school and vacations and, and a better house and you have to remember me Bis sis! It's me! i-i-its-"

"Meni!" Chrome suddenly gasped, shooting straight out of her chair. "Meni? oh Meni, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you earlier!" she rushed over to the girl, picking her up in her arms as the girl started sobbing again. Chrome held Meni in her arms as she turned to Tsuna. "She was going to be the last victim of that kidnapping ring you assigned me to take care of. The one that got I-pin? This girl was there at the same time. I assumed since she was in front of a large group of the higher ups in the ring, her parents hadn't been able to pay up. I saved her, went back to her house, and helped out her family for a couple days."

Tsuna nodded, understanding. "Yes, yes. I remember." He looked at the girl. "Hello, Meni. My name is Tsuna. Sorry about scaring you. We're a bit scared ourselves."

The girl looked up from Chrome's shoulder, sniffling. "R-really?"

Tsuna smiled. "Yup! See, I've got this important meeting this week, and these guys, they really don't like me or the people I'm meeting with. So, they're looking to hurt me and my friends here. But don't worry," he added, smiling wider, "Chrome is here to protect me, so I doubt anyone is going to get near us."

Chrome looked down, embarrassed. "Boss..." she trailed off, not wanting to doubt her boss's judgement, but not wanting to make herself look so good.

Surprisingly, Meni smiled, albeit only a small one. "Yup. Big sis is strong."

Tsuna looked up to Chrome. "Yes she is."

He stood, looking at the group of guests in front of him. "I apologize for frightening you. We don't mean to harm anyone. We just want some food, and then we'll be on our way."

More surprises. The group set down the improvised weaponry they had all gathered, and visibly relaxed. A small boy walked forward, staring Chrome in the eye. "You were the one that saved Meni?" he asked. He wore a small leather jacket over a faded blue shirt, black shorts and sneakers clothing his legs, a dirty hat finishing off the look.

Chrome nodded. The boy looked away, obviously upset. "Thank you." he said.

Chrome smiled. "I'm a Guardian." She said. "I protect." she set down Meni, who instantly shot forward to hug her leg. Chrome just lightly sighed, smiling.

The boy walked forward a bit more, staring at the back of Meni's head. "I...I'm sorry I didn't come out with you Meni."

Meni just hugged Chrome's leg tighter before looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Apologize to Big sis for saying she would eat me."

The boy looked up. He bit his lower lip before saying. "Sorry...Big sis."

Chrome looked at the boy cooly. "Apologize to Meni for calling her stupid."

The boy looked down at Meni. This time, the apology was a lot more caring. "Sorry Meni."

The girls looked at each other, smiling. "Apology accepted." they said at the same time. Meni then entered a giggling fit, causing Chrome to have to cover her mouth to silence her own little giggles.

The boy, obviously not enjoying the moment, looked at the ground, fists clenched. Tsuna looked at the boy, smiling sadly. "It takes a lot of courage to do what you did." he said, walking over to the boy and squatting so he wouldn't seem so tall. The boy looked up sharply. "What?"

"It's hard to stand by and watch someone you care about run into the face of danger. It's not cowardly to stay back. It's smart. If we had decided to start attacking, you could have escaped." Tsuna explained.

"Why would I escape? Meni's my friend...and I have family here..." the boy looked like he was about to cry.

"You would run because you couldn't stop us. If you lived, you could grow stronger as you got older, and be able to find someone you love. You could start a family with them, so that if the time came, you could protect them. You can't protect someone if you're dead, child." Tsuna smiled. "Recklessness makes so many people sad. You need to think for now. You can't start doing reckless stuff till you're older."

The boy looked up, eyes shining. "How much older?" he asked.

Tsuna sighed. "How old are you now?" he asked, knowing where this was going.

"Seven." the child replied.

Tsuna nodded, glancing up at a woman who was staring at the boy protectively. "How about you come talk to me when you're eighteen?" he said.

"WHAT!" the child practically screamed.

"Yup." said Tsuna. "And until then, you must stay alive, and try and help your family." Tsuna stood. "Men who do that end up with the best lives."

The boy looked up at Tsuna and his full height, his eyes wide. "Really? Like what?"

"What do you mean?" asked Tsuna.

"What will I get if I live and help my family?"

Tsuna thought. Then he smiled evilly. "I'll bless your wedding with Meni."

A faint gagging sound was heard behind him. He turned to look at Meni, who was a tad green in the face. "W-w-wedding?" she choked out. "ewwwww."

Chrome smiled. "I think they're a little young to be guessing at that sort of thing, Boss." she said.

Tsuna shook his head, completely serious. "Oh no, Chrome. This I know for sure."

Chrome blinked. "O...okay."

By this time, everyone's nerves had dropped. And the other patrons welcomed them warmly, as everything got set up for a party.

* * *

Chrome nodded as she listened to Meni's parents talk about what life had been like since she had left their house.

"...And just yesterday we finished work on the new table, so now we can fit over all our relatives when they come visit. And we're expecting another child!" Squealed Meni's mother.

Chrome's eye widened. "Well thats good." she said.

The mother nodded. "What about you?" she asked. "Any plans for children yet?"

Chrome shook her head quickly. "N-no...right now I'm concentrating on finishing school."

The mother nodded. "Do you have anyone special though? A husband? Fiancé?"

Chrome started to shake her head as a voice behind her said "She does have one loser boyfriend."

She looked up to see Tsuna standing behind her.

"Boss?" she asked.

"Yup. She has a lover," he continued on, sitting down. "But he's indecisive, romantically cheesy, way too passionate for his own good, and a bit of a klutz." He looked at Chrome. "Right? Or did you leave him?"

Chrome stared at Tsuna. She knew exactly what he meant.

"The one thing that ever got me to let him near you was when he told me about this dream of you he had. A dream where you were on a hill of flowers. Where you smiled and laughed and let your hair down. Of course, from some of the details he described, you wouldn't be able to guess he was talking about you. You never seemed like the type to tell a man you loved them as you sat in their lap hugging them."

Tsuna was looking Chrome right in the eye as he described their dream perfectly. Chrome's heart was pounding the whole time. _No way, no way, no way! _she thought, flustered.

Meni's mother simply listened in silence. She wasn't a fool. She knew exactly who this 'loser' was. "So..." she asked, playing dumb. "Did you ever leave him? Or did this cheesy romantic woo you?"

Chrome looked back at Meni's mother. Then she looked down at the drink in her hand. "He wooed me." she whispered softly.

Meni's mother smiled. "Well that's good to hear. You don't find men like that often."

Tsuna just sighed happily. His life was complete.

"VOOOOOOOOOOOOIIII! WE GOTTA GET GOING, TRASH! IT'S GO TIME!" Squalo once again ruined another perfect moment between Tsuna and Chrome by yelling.

Basil looked up at the time, gasping. "He's right, Tsuna-dono. We must leave quickly. Does thou remember how to get back to the hotel?"

Tsuna nodded. "Yup. Let me just pay-" a chorus of yells and snorts could be heard throughout the room. "You saved my daughter's life." Said Meni's father, walking up to Tsuna. "We would never ask you to pay after that. And anyway, we ordered most of the food and beer."

Tsuna sighed. "This is why I don't like people to know who I am. They always shower me with stuff. Really, it's no problem for me to pay, I can do it easily."

Meni's father stood tall. "Vongola! Since you have taken over control, you have cleaned up your men, and personally dealt with any problems caused by your colleagues. You've helped more people out of their problems then the average nun. And you will accept nothing for it! Please, allow us to give back to you in this small way we can." He stared Tsuna in the eye.

Tsuna thought about it. Then he closed his eyes, nodding. "Very well." He stood as well, eye level with the other man. "Then will you please indulge me with a handshake?"

Meni's father looked surprised. Then he smiled. "Of course." They shook hands. "I apologize for our earlier rudeness, your reputation preceded you. Thank you for all you've done, Vongola."

Tsuna nodded. "If you ever need any help, here's my personal phone number." He handed the man a card.

The man nodded, smiling. "Thank you again."

Tsuna smiled, and turned to Chrome. "I think it's time to go." He said. Tsuna held out his hand.

Chrome nodded, then, lightly blushing, took Tsuna's hand. He pulled, lifting her out of her chair and by his side.

They walked to the exit. Just as they were about to leave, they heard a quiet "Bis sis." behind them

Chrome turned, looking over her shoulder. "Yes, Meni?"

Meni had a big piece of paper in her hand, along with a pen. She looked at Chrome, then glanced down, embarrassed. Chrome squatted down and asked again.

"Do you want something, Meni?"

The girl looked up sheepishly. "Can...I have your autograph?" she asked, sticking the paper forward slightly.

Chrome looked at the paper, then back at Meni, curiously. "Is that _really_ what you want?" she asked.

Meni started to nod...then stopped, shaking her head.

"Well what do you want then?" Chrome asked sweetly.

Meni looked down again, shyly. "Your eyepatch." she whispered quietly.

Chrome stared at the girl, lightly touching her skull eyepatch. "Sorry Meni." she said. "I need this."

Meni nodded sadly. She held out the paper and pen again.

Chrome ignored the pen, taking the paper in hand. She closed her eye and ignited the flame on the Mist ring. She then ripped the paper in half and opened her eye, watching as the flames burned the paper to a crisp.

No one moved in the room, except Meni, who started to shake as she watched the embers and ashes of her hope float in midair.

Her sadness quickly turned to wonder when the ashes began to spin. They formed a tornado and began rapidly twirling, moving faster and faster, closer and closer, until the ashes and embers became a small ball. The ball began to flatten until it was a thin disc the size of a dinner plate. The edge of the disc began to unwind itself, until the actual disc was a tenth the original size, with a long tail.

The end of the tail turned and connected itself to the opposite side of its base. Chrome plucked the pen out of Meni's mesmerized hand, and began to scribble on the disk. When she finished scribbling, she brought the ashes close to her chest, clapsing them in between her hands and closing her eye. A glow could be seen in between her palms. When she opened her hand, Meni gasped. The ashes had turned to cloth, and the scribbles had moved to shape themselves exactly like Chrome's skull. "Turn around." said Chrome.

Meni spun on one leg, stopping when she was facing the other direction. Chrome lowered the newly formed eye patch over the girl's head, first letting it fall to the girl's neck. It glowed when it rested there. After that, Chrome picked it up again and brought it up to the girl's right eye, softly pinching the excess so that the eyepatch fit Meni snugly.

The eyepatch glowed again, then stopped, the excess having disappeared. Chrome guided Meni over to a mirror and asked "How does it look?"

Meni could melt Pluto with her smile. "It's wonderful Big sis! Thank you!"

Chrome smiled. "Your welcome. If you ever need to use your other eye, just lightly tug the eyepatch down to your neck. The band will lengthen, and it'll be like a necklace. If you ever want to put it back on, just pick up the patch part and put it over your eye for a second. When you feel the band tighten around your head, you can let go. You understand?"

Meni nodded, still glowing.

Chrome smiled again. Then she bent down and whispered something in Meni's ear. The girl's eyes widened, and she nodded furiously. Chrome nodded once. She brought her hands to the young girl's head, folding her long hair into the shape of a pineapple.

After she was done with Meni's hair, Chrome went over to Meni's mother and wrote down how to fold one's hair into a pineapple. Then, everything finished with that, she waved to Meni goodbye.

"You'll be at my birthday party, right Big sis?" asked Meni.

"If Boss lets me, then yes." answered Chrome.

Meni pouted, before running over to Tsuna and violently kicking him in the shin.

"I'm going to hurt you worse if you make Big sis cry!" she said before running back to her mom, who was hyperventilating because the current Vongola boss was holding his leg in pain after her daughter kicked him.

Before she could say anything, Tsuna smiled at Meni. "Don't worry. That's not going to happen."

He looked at Chrome. "Shall we go?" he asked. Chrome nodded, blushing.

Tsuna stood, looking around at the crowd. "Well, I apologize that I couldn't stay longer, but two of my companions ran off some time ago, and it's getting dark out. So, Goodnight everyone!" Tsuna waved to everyone as Chrome walked out the door. He soon followed.

* * *

The sun had set a little under an hour ago, yet already it was pitch black out. The modern street lighting was the only thing that let them see. As Chrome and Tsuna walked back to the Dream Sky, Tsuna decided he'd shoot for some small talk.

"So, Chrome..." he started. "That was a really nice thing you did."

Chrome nodded. No response. Tsuna decided to keep trying.

"I didn't know you had Sky flames though. That was a bit of a surprise. Still, if it helped bring the illusion into reality, then I'm not complaining..."

He trailed off as Chrome intertwined her arm closest to him with his. She interlaced their fingers, squeezing.

"This isn't a dream, is it? This isn't a real dream, and a fake you, right?"

Chrome looked at Tsuna. He stared back at her knowingly. "From the way you worded that, you already know the answer."

She slowed down, coming to a stop. He kept pace with her, stopping when she did.

"Say it." she asked softly.

He untwined his arm from hers, breaking her hold on his hand. He slipped his hand under hers, placing his gloved palm on her waist. Slowly, he raised his hand up. When he got to her ribcage, his hand slid to her back, joined by his other one. He pulled her to his chest, maintaining eye contact while squeezing, letting her know that this was the closest he had ever gotten to a woman emotionally.

"I love you, Nagi."

He used her real name not to antagonize her, but to show that this had nothing to do with the mafia, or with Mukuro, or with anything they had experienced before. This was something knew and independent.

And she knew it.

"I love you too, Tsuna."

She rolled onto her toes and kissed him, arms around his neck.

They stayed like that for quite a while. He slowly rubbing her shoulder blades, she keeping him close and teasing him with her tongue when he started to break away. Neither wanted their first real moment to end, especially since no one was around.

They thought.

* * *

At the end of the street they were on, two cloaked figures watched from the top of a building. One squatted just on the lip of the building, the other standing a yard behind. Neither moved as they watched the young Vongola fall for each other. Finally, the one on the edge of the building couldn't take it anymore. He stood, turning and snorting. "Let's go. We aren't gonna attack him till everything at the meeting has played through anyway."

His companion just nodded, picking up a camera with a longer lens off the roof in front of him and snapping a picture. Then they turned and as one jumped off the other side of the building.

* * *

Chrome and Tsuna walked into the lobby of the Dream Sky, where they were quickly flagged down by Cheryl.

As they walked over to the desk, they could see Cheryl visibly relax. "Thank god you made it on time, Master Sawada, Madam Dokuro." she said.

"What's up, Cheryl?" asked Tsuna.

Cheryl held up a sticky note with a strange red smear in the bottom corners. Tsuna took it and read it aloud. "Get up to the penthouse now scum. I need someone to shoot and Bel is avoiding me." He looked back at Chrome. "Guess we have no choice." he shrugged.

Chrome looked at Tsuna, slightly confused. "Wait...shoot?"

Tsuna nodded. He looked over his shoulder at Cheryl as he walked toward the elevator. "Thanks for this Cheryl." The receptionist nodded. "I hope everything goes well Master Sawada." replied the perky woman.

Chrome was still confused as to exactly what Squalo meant. "Wait...Boss...what does he mean by shoot?"

Tsuna looked at Chrome as they got in the elevator. "He means he wants to point a gun at us and pull the trigger." he said before typing in the code to get up to the penthouse.

two. seven. nine. six.

Chrome blushed. Tsuna looked over at her again. "Y-you okay?"

She nodded. "You sure?" he asked.

She nodded again. "I-it's just...I feel...happy, for some reason."

Tsuna nodded. "You too? Happy, a bit embarrassed, strangely aroused...like your hormones went into overdrive?" he finished blushing as well.

Chrome nodded. "I wonder why?" she asked.

Tsuna scratched his head furiously. "I don't know, but that code has bothered me every day since the fair!"

Chrome thought. The few times she had seen that string of numbers, she'd felt like this as well.

They both wondered, _why?_

_

* * *

_

As they entered the penthouse, Tsuna cringed at a loud screech that filled the rooms.

Chrome looked at Tsuna, then began to inch forward, looking around the corner of the hallway they were in to try and locate the source of that horrible shrieking.

Tsuna strode past her, grabbing her hand as he passed to lead her in the direction of the room they had stopped at three fourths of a day earlier.

The gunshots and various animalistic noises were still there, but this time the door wasn't locked.

Tsuna opened the door on a scene that Chrome never expected to see the CEDEF commander or assassin ever in.

A loud roar was heard as Basil stood in front of a giant TV, flicking up his Wii remote and watching the character in front of him swing up a large sword, cutting the dragon in front of him right through the head. Suddenly, the TV angle changed to above the dragon, showing it lean up and roar as it fell at the feet of the character who for some reason was dancing.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Squalo yelled "VOOOOOOOIIII! TEACH YOU TO TRY AND SPAWN KILL ME, FAILGOD!" as the TV in front of him showed a replay of a man dressed like a terrorist run toward the camera in slow motion. Just as the terrorist got right in front of the camera, a knife flashed outwards and slit him across the chest. The top and bottom of the screen had red bars across them, and the top bar had the words "GAME WINNING KILL" in white.

Yes. Basil, the number two of the most powerful italian mafia, and Squalo, the strategy commander and second best assassin in the deadly Varia...were playing video games.

"Ah! Tsuna-dono, Chrome-dono, thou hast arrived at last." said Basil, pausing his Wii and walking over to them.

Squalo turned around on his couch. "VOOII! the scum finally arrived? What, did they fuck in half the alleys on the way back? DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IV'E HAD TO PLAY WITH THESE WEAKLING, NO TALENT, NOOB SCUM WAITING FOR YOU!"

"I'm sorry about taking so long. I didn't want to send a bad message to our new friends, and I didn't think Bel would cancel. I thought the Varia were facing another clan today?"

Squalo snorted. "They canceled."

Tsuna nodded. "So...I assume you guys wanna do split screen?"

Basil nodded furiously as Squalo got the game set up, grabbing another three controllers and tossing them to the others.

Basil and Tsuna each caught theirs with one hand, expecting the projectile. Chrome fumbled with it a bit before dropping it on the ground below her.

Squalo froze. He turned and glared at Chrome as she picked it back up, embarrassed.

"Chrome." asked Tsuna. "Do you want to play? If not, there are tons of other things to do around here."

"VOOOOII! Scum, if she doesn't play we'll have uneven teams!"

Basil sighed. "I'm sure we could figure something out. It's no fun to play if someone isn't enjoying themselves."

Chrome shook her head. "I'll play." she said softly.

Basil and Tsuna looked at her in surprise. Squalo just snorted again.

"Well then get your pretty little ass over here so we can start!"

The other three walked over to the couch Squalo was on, Tsuna resisting the urge to step on Squalo's foot for thinking about Chrome's rear. They sat down, Squalo leaning forward in 'gamer mode' at one end of the couch, Basil siting at the other as he cooly stared at the screen, and Tsuna and Chrome taking the middle.

Squalo quickly flipped through menu's, choosing special rules and game types. He looked over to Chrome. "You don't play many games, do you?" he asked.

Chrome shook her head. Squalo smiled evilly. "Oh, thats good. I think we should turn friendly fire onto reflect then." Basil resisted the urge to smile, instead simply shaking his head. But Squalo was good at reading his colleagues face.

Tsuna was the one who put his foot down. "No." he said. "We're not gonna do that to Chrome."

"What's reflect?" asked Chrome.

"It's where, if you shoot a friend, the bullets bounce back and kill you." explained Tsuna.

"Ah! No...bad idea." said Chrome.

Tsuna nodded. Squalo sighed, flipping friendly fire off.

Then came the argument about the map. "We are NOT doing sub base." said Basil.

"VOOOOOII! Why the fuck not?" yelled Squalo.

"Because we ALWAYS DO SUB BASE." replied Basil, exasperated.

"That's because Sub Base is an awesome map!"

"No it isn't. Why dost thou like it so much?"

"Because you can be a SEAL!"

"How could I forget?"

"VOOOOOOIIIII! ARE YOU INSULTING THE SEALS! WITH THEY'RE AWESOME WEAPONRY AND INVASION TACTICS!"

"No, Squalo. I was insulting thee, and thou's infatuation with a special forces group a third of a world away."

"Vooiiii. Just wait till I dominate you with them, you fucking little noo-"

"Enough, both of you! Let's just play the game!" said Tsuna, exasperated.

"Um...actually-" said Chrome.

"What!" all three men asked.

Chrome sank back a bit into the couch. "What're the controls?"

They all gave her a blank stare.

"Oh." said Squalo.

"I am terribly sorry for raising my voice to you, Chrome-dono." apologized Basil.

"I'll explain things to her, and you guys can get everything finished, right?" asked Tsuna.

They both nodded, turning back to the TV. Tsuna leaned over to whisper in Chrome's ear as the other two began to argue again over whether or not radar should be left on.

"This stick is used to move your character." Began Tsuna, pointing at the joystick under her left thumb. "This one moves your camera." he said, pointing to the one under her right thumb.

"Now, I could explain what all the buttons did, but that would take a while, so here are the important ones." he lightly took the controller out of Chrome's hands and pointed to the bottom two buttons on it's front. "This one zooms you in, and shows you the sights for your gun." he tapped the left one.

"And this one is your trigger." he bumped the right. "So, you use the left one to zoom in and aim, and the right one to fire."

He handed the controller back to Chrome. "Got that?" he asked. She nodded. "I think so."

He smiled. "This game can get kind of intense, so just try to enjoy yourself as we get killed by the other two over and over again."

Chrome nodded slightly. She knew she was going to lose, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

* * *

The controller slipped out of Chrome's sleeping hand, hitting the ground and making Tsuna, Basil, and Squalo all jump. They had been so focused on this last round that they had failed to notice their fourth player lose consciousness. Tsuna looked at the time and quietly swore. "Guys, we gotta get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be one helluva recovery day so that we can make it to the meeting on time." he yawned, getting up.

"What about Chrome-dono?" asked Basil, one eye closed and the other halfway there, the 'noob-dunce' cone on his head perched precariously. Chrome had created it when she had killed him, and he wore it good naturedly. They had been passing it around all night, but it always seemed to find his way back to him.

"Leave her. We aren't gonna do anything to her." said Squalo, eyes wider then Tsuna had ever seen them, bloodshot.

Tsuna shook his head. "I'll take her to her room."

He bent over, wrapping one arm around her body as he leaned her forward, resting her head against his shoulder. He slid the rest of her body forward, her legs on either side of him, her arms draped over his shoulders as he slid one arm under her and picked her up, like one would carry a sleeping child.

He walked back to the elevator, ignoring the whistles from Squalo and the chuckles from Basil.

As he entered the code to let the elevator go back to their floor, he looked at Chrome's sleeping face. It was peaceful, not a wrinkle or stress line in sight. Her eye was closed, but not scrunched down. And the way her cheek slightly indented around his shoulder was cute.

He stared at her. Craning his neck slightly, he leaned over and opened his mouth about halfway, placing his lips on the cheek facing him. He slowly brought them together, catching a tiny bit of skin in between his lips, before pulling back and whispering "I will be there for you until the day you die."

* * *

As he opened the door to her room, he quickly walked over to her bed, gently laying her down. He could feel himself about to fall asleep, so he needed to get back to his room as soon as he could.

As he tried to stand back up after laying her against the bed, her hands tightened around his neck. "Don't go..." she softly whispered, eye fluttering a tad open.

He tried to stand up again. Chrome's grip didn't loosen. She shook her head. "No." she said, in the sweetest voice he had ever heard.

He smiled, and with a sigh, laid down next to Chrome. She snuggled closer, softly kissing his collar bone as he grabbed a silk sheet and brought it over them. He smiled ruefully as Chrome's breathing once again slowed to the point that she had to be sleeping. _Tomorrow morning is going to be interesting._

Even so, he made no move to leave, and as he fell asleep to the scent of lavender, he thought _I would kill to keep things the way they are._

**And that's it. Meeting starts in Chapter 6, so expect a fluff-centric Chapter 5. And starting at the meeting, the story is going to get a bit darker, just a warning.**

**Until next time, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.**


	5. Chapter 5: Date

**And on to the next chapter. This one is going to be fluffy, sorry if that doesn't appeal to you, but I think it's necessary for the story. You can't knock something down that hasn't been built up.**

**Now, for the reviews:**

**TenchiSaWaDa: I don't really like trying to define my work in set parameters mostly because I'm not good at choosing the right one, so i generally mislead people, and it feels constricting. But I think this is a 'romance parallel'. Since most of my stuff up till now has been 'romance focus' i decided to try something different. I apologize if that's not what you were looking for, my next series will probably be very 'focus', with the action being used as a catalyst for the romance.**

**dJhAmystery: Thank you. Squalo is just the kind of person that stirs up either comedy or bloodbaths, depending on his mood. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.**

**R4P1D: Yes, they are. I think Squalo is just really into the game, and doesn't like to lose, but I'll leave that up to you. And they switched to an XBox. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.**

**So, enjoy the sunshiny bright chapter...it might be a bit before we see one again.**

**And please review.**

Chrome woke to the feeling of heat and the smell of a familiar body wash.

Eye opening, she repressed the urge to once again throw herself against the nearest wall when she looked into Tsuna's eyes, wide awake and staring at her from his face, mere inches away.

_At least all my clothes are on this time._ She thought as she tried to remember what he was doing here.

"You wouldn't let me go, and asked that I stay." Tsuna said, her question clearly all over her face.

She nodded. "Ah. Well...thanks." She yawned suddenly, unwrapping an arm from around Tsuna to cover her mouth. She still felt really tired. "What time?" she mumbled.

"It's eight in the morning." he said, sounding as tired as she was.

Chrome would have closed her eye to help her think, but she was afraid she'd fall asleep again. Finally remembering what time Tsuna had carried her down here, she did the math. "Only five hours?"

Tsuna nodded. "Meeting starts at seven thirty tomorrow, and being late would be bad. Especially on the first day."

Chrome understood. Unwrapping her other arm and rolling away from Tsuna, she sat up, stretching out the kinks in her arms. She got out of bed at the same time as Tsuna, both trying to pat out the wrinkles in their clothing.

As she was doing this, Chrome looked at Tsuna. "Got anything planned for today Boss?"

Tsuna thought about it as he rolled his head, trying to loosen his stiff neck. "Depends. I know this really nice Russian restaurant about twenty minutes from here...if you're still interested."

"Just the two of us this time?"

Tsuna nodded.

Chrome smiled. "Alright then."

Tsuna smiled too. "On a Sunday night, the best time to go around there would probably be...seven. So we leave here six forty. I'll swing back here then?"

Chrome nodded. "Um, Boss..." she said, suddenly completely serious.

Tsuna walked around the bed, confident that his clothes didn't look like the average ocean view anymore. He looked at her with confusion and a bit of worry."Yes Chrome?"

She looked him dead in the eye. "I'm going to be taking a shower now, try and clean up a bit, so..."

Tsuna nodded, blushing a bit, the heavy atmosphere gone. "Yeah, I got things to prep for tomorrow anyway, so...I'll be going then."

Chrome smiled at their childishness, leaning forward. She lightly kissed him, holding his attention for five seconds before breaking contact. "Thanks Boss. See you tonight." she whispered.

Tsuna's arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. He leaned forward, almost making contact, but stopping short of her lips. "See you tonight." he smiled mischievously.

Letting go, he walked over to her door. As he opened it, he glanced back and said offhandedly "If you get bored at any point in the next twelve hours, stop by the penthouse. There are plenty of things to do up there, just ask Basil about it."

He walked out of her room, closing the door behind him.

Tsuna's cheery mood quickly gave way to a cautious one as he went back to his room. Whipping out his phone as he opened the door, he dialed the number that he had practically been forced into making his speed dial #1.

"Hayato?" Tsuna asked, wondering exactly why he always double checked to see who he was calling.

He was answered by the ensuing commotion that drifted over the line.

After about ten seconds of loud fighting and tires squealing, a voice suddenly came over the line. "Hey, Vongola! How's your little escape going?"

Tsuna sighed. "It's a meeting Lambo, not a vacation."

The Thunder Guardian snorted. "Not from what Basil has told me."

As Lambo tried to ask another question, Tsuna distinctly heard over the phone "FUCKING STUPID COW! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK SO THE TENTH CAN TALK TO SOMEONE WITH A SEMBLANCE OF A BRAIN!"

Lambo's response? "WELL THAT OBVIOUSLY ISN'T YOU, STUPIDERA! Only an idiot would turn around in the driver's seat to try and grab something while we're in fucking rush hour traffic! NOW WATCH WHERE THE HELL YOU'RE DRIVING, OCTOPUS HEAD!"

Tsuna sighed. "Lambo, put me on speakerphone."

"What was that, Vongola? You're masturbating arm here has decided to try and get us both killed, so I'm not exactly paying attention to- WHOA! HEY, STUPIDERA! THE RED SIGN MEANS STOP, NOT GO FASTER!"

"OH REALLY!" was the reply. "Has the stupid cow finally found out how to tell the difference between COLORS? It's a fucking MIRACLE! Now at least put the damn thing on SPEAKERPHONE SO SOMETHING INTELLIGENT CAN HAPPEN TODAY!"

"Lambo! Hayato! Enough! We have bigger problems!" Tsuna loudly scolded into the phone.

"HAH! Your precious Tenth just told you to stop being an idiot!"

"The Tenth would never say that about me!"

"Well too bad, I'll put him on speakerphone right now, and he can tell you himself."

Tsuna heard a beeping, and before his two guardians had an opportunity to begin shouting at him, he quickly began firing out commands of his own. "Hayato, pay attention to what's in front of you, obey all traffic laws, and drop your speed which I know is too high. Lambo, stop pestering Hayato, he's doing work for me and he probably brought you along for a reason. Now I have some information to discuss with him so can you be quiet until we're done?"

He heard two _Che_'s come from the other end.

"Of course, Tenth."

"Sure thing, Vongola."

Tsuna nodded, knowing that they couldn't see him, but the action felt good. "Good. Now, Hayato, anything on your end yet?"

He heard a sigh. "Nothing much. That kidnapping group Chrome dealt with was probably working with another family, so chances are after she shut them down, some of them got absorbed into the family."

"Okay...any suspects?"

"No one we normally butt heads with. Chrome proved it's not Vongola after matching up some of the records she found at their hideout to our records. We have tabs on all the big white spell players, and the only good kidnappers out of that group were either in jail at the time or had alibis. And kidnapping isn't the Shimon's style, if they wanted to go up against us again, they'd make it an attack against Vongola, not innocent civilians."

Tsuna sighed too. "Someone either new, or very good at what they do. Great."

"What about you Tenth? Dealt with many assassination attempts?"

"No."

"Great! So Chrome really was a good choice."

"No Hayato. I mean I haven't dealt with any plots to kill me because I _haven't been attacked. AT. ALL."_

"..."

"Yeah."

Lambo piped up. 'Isn't that good?"

"No." both young adults responded at the same time.

On the other end of the line, Lambo looked between the phone and the driver. "Why not?"

"Because they always attack the Tenth. Every meeting we've gone too, the Tenth has had to dodge bullets and deflect flames."

"I'm still failing to see the problem." said Lambo.

"If I haven't been attacked at all, that means that something big is going to be happening. This reeks of conspiracy." explained Tsuna over the phone.

"But, wait, how do you know that security isn't just really really good?"

"Because the only security I have is Chrome. The families don't have a personal protection agency we all share. We don't trust each other that much. Everyone has to deal with their share of assassination attempts, especially the Vongola. The only other time where we haven't had to fight off at least two hitmen happened seven years ago."

"What happened then?" asked Lambo.

"An independent assassination group got their hands on vital Vongola intelligence and killed both Ganauche III and the Ninth."

Lambo was silent for a moment. He remembered the funeral they had held for the two of them. Ganauche's death had hit him quite a bit, mostly because the elder Guardian, though a bit weird with his constant grinning that made you think he was just going to go on a serial killing spree, was the first mentor he had ever really had, and had taught him many different ways to manipulate his flame. But he had never learned the specifics of how the elder men had been killed.

"Oh." was all he could say.

"Yeah." said Gokudera, knowing that they had touched a sore subject with the youngest guardian.

"That's bad."

"That's why I didn't go with the Tenth this time around. I've been investigating the group that Chrome took down. We think they might be linked to the assassination of the Ninth."

Lambo nodded. "But, wait, if we're investigating a Vongola conspiracy, then why are we heading to Chiavarone HQ?"

Tsuna picked it up from here. "Hayato is trying to see if it's just a problem with Vongola, or if someone is targeting all of the moderate bosses. If they are, then we can form a support group back here and watch each other's backs. If I'm the only one being targeted, I know to concentrate on my own well being."

Lambo nodded again, understanding the situation as much as he could.

"Was that everything you wanted, Tenth?" asked Gokudera, finally getting off the freeway and heading down a road that seemed to lead to nowhere.

"Yes, contact Chrome if you have any more updates. If this really is a conspiracy, then make sure to contact Ryohei and Kyoya so they can start digging up information on the militant bosses, see which one of them could be suspect." instructed Tsuna.

Just as he was about to hang up, Lambo asked a question. "Hey, Vongola?"

"Yes, Lambo?"

"Why Chrome?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why'd you choose Chrome? Why not Takeshi or Mukuro or me?"

"Um...well, that's because I wanted to make sure you were all in positions to dig up information for me just in case."

"Oh...so you think Chrome is the weakest of us, and therefore would be the least effective out here."

"NO!" Tsuna snapped, growing angry. Chrome, weak? He'd seen her take down just as many people as Lambo or Mukuro. Besides, how could you call someone weak if they could fool his hyper intuition, a feat that no one else could accomplish?

"Really."

"YES!"

"So you do like her!"

"W-what?" Tsuna stuttered, caught off guard. Lambo had probably been angering him on purpose to get him to lower his guard.

"HA! WE KNEW IT!"

Tsuna tried to cover up. He wasn't embarrassed about his feelings, but he didn't really want the first person he told to be Lambo, especially knowing about Chrome's shy personality. "W-well...she is a very good looking woman...and while I certainly wouldn't MIND pursuing a relationship with her, I'm not sure that would be the most professional thing to do-"

"Riiiiiight." said Lambo, obviously ignoring Tsuna's excuse. "Because you're so professional that you would invite along probably the best looking woman in our mafia -one who obviously is extremely loyal to you- to a week long 'meeting' at a luxury hotel in Italy, where you guys get your own damn floor all to yourselves. Totally professional."

"..."

"Look, Vongola, I don't care what...or who...you do in your spare time. Just please. Please...bang her sometime in the next twenty four hours, cause I got a lot of money bet against the others and you stand to make a profit-"

"SORRY TENTH, BUT A VERY LARGE STICK OF DYNAMITE IS ABOUT TO GO THROUGH THE FUCKING COW'S LEFT EAR, WE CAN'T TALK ANYMORE, BYE!" and with that Gokudera hung up on Tsuna.

Tsuna stared at his phone for a bit before sighing. He'd expected some minor teasing from Yamamoto and Lambo and maybe Mukuro, but seriously. _They have a bet going?_

Tsuna stood as he picked out what he'd be wearing that night and then began sorting through paperwork that he would present at the meeting.

_...It's not a bad idea._

Chrome walked into the same room she'd fallen asleep in last night to find Squalo and Basil out cold in front of their TV's. Though she felt slightly bad about it, she had no idea where anything around here was, so she walked over to Basil and gently shook him awake. "Basil-kun." she called.

Basil woke with a start, looking over at the time to see that he'd been sleeping for what, four hours? He needed more rest or he was going to be a zombie at the next meeting. Looking back up at who woke him, he instantly snapped to attention.

Chrome was in a jade green bikini, a beach towel in one hand as she held her trident in the other. This was probably also the first time Basil had ever seen Chrome with her hair down, and it framed her face perfectly, tucked behind her ears, flowing down her back.

"Basil-kun? You awake?" she asked, bending over. _Not a good idea! _thought Basil. Bending over in that clothing...I mean, sure, they weren't large per say, but they were shaped perfectly...

"I can see why Tsuna-dono is so interested in thou." Said Basil, not quite awake enough to stop himself from saying something embarrassing.

Chrome looked at him in confusion, before following his gaze. She quietly gasped, quickly leaning up and staring at Basil, a blush spreading across her cheeks. "U-um...Basil-kun, where's the p-pool?"

Realizing what he said, he quickly looked down, guessing he might have overstepped his bounds just a bit. "Down the hall to your left, right turn at the end, then a left turn at the end of the second hallway. Keep following it until you can see the pool. It's in a separate room, but there are plenty of windows, you can't miss the door."

Chrome nodded, spun on her heel, and bolted for the door, leaving a rapidly falling asleep Basil to feel jealousy towards the Vongola boss for the first time ever.

Chrome stood just inside the door to the pool room. Basil's directions had been accurate, and she had arrived at the pool in no time at all. What had stopped her in her tracks was the fact that Basil, while being very kind in explaining how to get there, failed to mention that the pool itself was olympic size. And, the hot tub ten feet away from it could easily fit twenty people.

She sighed. She shouldn't have expected anything differently. Setting the towel down by one of the ladders at the deep end of the pool, she pulled her phone out from among the towel's folds and set it down. Now Tsuna could contact her if he needed, and she could keep track of time easier. She laid her trident next to it, making sure it was in its collapsed form and hanging over the lip of the pool so she could grab it quickly if need be.

Seeing that everything was in order, Chrome slid into the pool, shivering at the temperature. She was sure that there was a water heater somewhere around here, but at that moment she wasn't really concentrating on much outside of her thoughts. And she had a lot to think about.

Chrome wasn't the picture perfect housewife, so she had devoted all her free time throughout middle and high school to training her mind and body. She did almost anything when it came to strengthening herself, from cardio training to volleyball to mental brain busters to various forms of self defense to training with her trident. She slept maybe three hours a day all though high school with the amount of work she was putting in to try and make herself better. To destroy that feeling of uselessness that had plagued her ever since the fights on Shimon's island.

She had been either unconscious or imprisoned for most of the week, so when Tsuna found her and told her what was going on, she was practically jumping at the chance to help out Tsuna, and kick Julie's ass. In the ensuing fight against her Shimon counterpart, she lost. Horribly. It wasn't even really a fight. Julie had completely dominated her with his weird flames. She had needed Mukuro to save her, to fight and defeat Julie. Even with the most rest out of all the Guardians, even with the new Gear, she still couldn't fight.

In the last half of his senior year of high school, Tsuna had found out about Chrome's new habits from a concerned Chikusa who, after watching Chrome push herself so far past her limits she was destroying herself with every step, finally cracked. The second he had heard what had been going on with her, Tsuna made a call to Gokudera to get his motorcycle to Chrome's location, flew to where she was, at a local gym, getting ready to once again begin another three mile run at a speed she obviously couldn't handle.

As soon as he saw what she was doing, he picked her up, slung her over his shoulder just long enough to shut off the treadmill, then walked out, switching her to a more bridal style carry before getting on his flame powered motorcycle. Since it was controlled by his flames, which fed off his resolution, he could control the smaller, sleek, black demon with his mind. Leaving his hands free to pin Chrome against him as she tried to get off the bike and go back.

Ever since that day, Tsuna had followed her everywhere after school for the rest of his stay in Namimori. He would practically kidnap her and bring her back to his house. When he could see that wasn't helping, he began to take her out to various places. Movies, restaurants, local attractions. Anything to keep her mind off working.

The day after he graduated, she finally asked him why he wanted her to stop working so hard. He replied with a simple "Because you're strong the way you are. And nothing will tell any of us otherwise." She hadn't believed him at the time. What she had forgotten was the exact date, which was why she was so surprised when Tsuna led her back to his house.

When she walked through the door into Tsuna's house, and the surprise birthday party everyone threw her, she about broke into tears. She couldn't believe that so many people had accepted a weak nonentity like her; she told everyone as much multiple times. It had taken Hibari threatening to bite her to death from the corner Reborn and Tsuna had tied him up in if she continued to spout such nonsense, to finally convince her.

Chrome was never meant to be a front line fighter, she wasn't really meant to fight at all. She was supposed to protect, to deceive. As Ryohei put it, much to her embarrassment: "You're just not a fighter, you'd definitely make a better lover TO THE EXTREME."

Oddly enough, it was after he had shouted that phrase to Chrome for the whole world to hear that Tsuna finally accepted his long standing offer to a boxing match. It would also be the only time that Tsuna ever _won_ a boxing match. The smile he flashed as Ryohei fell in the fourth round made all the girls in the room blush. It made Chrome's heart skip a beat when she realized he had been looking directly at her when he smiled.

It had been ever since then, with that smile, that Tsuna had carved out Chrome's chest and stolen her heart. She had always viewed it that way, her feelings springing on her so suddenly. It was only looking back through her life did she realize that she had done the same to him long before.

Swimming calmly back and forth, back and forth, the rhythmic motions soothing, Chrome thought about what to do next. Swimming, as the only majorly physical activity she had kept doing even after Tsuna convinced her to stop all the major work outs and the only hobby she really had in college, helped her calm down, making things easier to think about.

_I can see why Tsuna-dono is so interested in thou._

Then again, there were some things that she just couldn't stop from blushing at, no matter how hard she tried. It was an annoying habit that she had tried on numerous occasions to grow out of. She forced herself to go to wild parties and other such things with Rukia to try and help that. She had thought it was working. Only recently did Chrome come to understand exactly how much Tsuna could affect her.

She'd heard comments like the one from Basil all the time. In fact, most of them weren't nearly as subtle or polite. Those ones she'd been able to turn back on the various lust filled guys or snotty girls she'd encountered over the years. With some practice, and at the cost of a bit of shame and respect, she could fluster any guy, and silence any girl. Even with people who knew her better, especially the other Guardians, she could make heads turn and noses bleed.

Except when it came to Tsuna. The few times she'd tried it on him, she would find herself on the receiving end of her own tactics. The flush she would feel on her face burned twice as hot on those rare occasions, especially since Tsuna always noticed it, and would simply smile.

_I can see why Tsuna-dono is so interested in thou._

The words kept ringing through her head.

As she swam back to her towel, she heard a familiar ring tone. Quickly swimming over to her phone and drying off her hands, she looked at the message. It was a text from..._Lambo?_

Chrome flipped open her phone, looking at the message.

_From: The Bull_

_To: The Owl_

_Subject: Money_

_Hey. Wanna make some ¥?_

She sent back a reply

_?_

Her heart seemed to forget that it was supposed to have a regular, steady rhythm after

she read his response.

_I got 500,000_ _saying YOU+VONGOLA= 8==D_

She thought about exactly how she would hurt each Guardian who would dare make bets on her personal life. It was none of their business what she did in her free time...

Lambo sent another message

_20%?_

...not that she didn't WANT to, she just didn't want to tell everyone about it. She was sure Tsuna wouldn't appreciate her broadcasting such information for all his friends to know. But this was a chance to get paid for what she wanted...

_Y/N Owl?_

_...It's not a bad idea. _She thought.

Chrome sighed. She was a bodyguard to the most powerful Mafia boss in the world. You couldn't put her name near the word 'pure' and not have it be a joke.

_80%_ she replied.

_50% _he tried to bargain

_75% _she lowered.

_60_ he gave her a bit of leeway.

_77_ which she quickly pounced on.

_Wait...70 _Lambo tried to get her to stop.

_78 _she didn't.

_...75 _He finally agreed to her reduced offer.

_80 _she restated.

_...80, but it has 2 b 2nite. _he gave in angrily.

Chrome smiled at Lambo's obvious defeat before sighing and setting the phone down, beginning her laps again.

After drying off and wrapping the towel around her, Chrome made her way to the elevator. She was intercepted by a very caffeine addled Squalo. "Vooi. Inside. Now." He pointed at the game room. His bloodshot eyes bored holes into the back of her head as she slowly made her way into the game room. He sat her down on his couch in front of the big TV they had played games on the previous night.

He turned on everything and got the game ready, choosing the single player option and handing her the controller. "You need to get better." he told her. "Since the next time we play this, it will be teams. Which means you, as the worst, will get paired with me, the best. And I need you to have some skill, so we don't lose as I start to get into a rhythm!"

Chrome opened her mouth to say something -she didn't know what really, but something- but before any sound could come out, somehow the veins in Squalo's eyes popped out even _more_, and he shouted. "Voooi. Play. NOW!" and so finishing, he turned and stormed off to god knows where.

Looking over her shoulder one last time, Chrome turned to the TV as a character, her sergeant apparently, instructed her on the basics of combat. She might as well try and get some enjoyment out of this while she waited for six-forty to roll around.

"CONTACT!" shouted a soldier as Chrome had her character bull rush behind a stone wall, switching to her shotgun as she peered around the wall at the incoming Russian special forces.

Basil watched on in awe as she took out two soldiers with one shot before throwing a flash grenade around the corner, picking up a pistol, and systematically eliminating the remaining enemies.

Squalo walked back into the room. "VOOOOIII! Basil! What the fu-" he stopped as he watched Chrome duck behind an office cubicle, shooting through the thin walls and annihilating the soldiers on the other side. "How long has it been since you got her going on the campaign?" asked Basil in slight awe.

He looked around Basil at the clock. " Four hours ago. Why?"

"She hasn't died once." he whispered.

Squalo stared. He looked from Basil to Chrome. To the TV. To Chrome. "Vooooii."

Then he busted into laughter. "VOOOOOOIIII! AT THIS RATE, SHE'LL BE A HARDCORE GAMER BY TEN!"

Chrome, hearing Squalo's time table, used her knife to slice out the throat of a nearby soldier and then paused the game, turning to look at the clock. "What time is it?" she asked.

It was six-fifteen.

She stopped. Thought. Did some math.

Chrome then proceeded to jump three feet in the air, propelling herself off the couch and somehow ignoring the basic laws of physics by directing her body toward the door mid jump. "I need to go!" she said as she ran to the elevator, ignoring the calls from Squalo and Basil.

She looked among the many dresses she had. She had plenty of choices, but the ones she wanted to wear were a little provocative to be going to a nice restaurant in. And the ones that would look appropriate she really didn't want to wear. She ran her hand through her wet hair, towel wrapped around her. She had just enjoyed a very nice shower, but now had about fifteen minutes until Tsuna was due to pop up at her door.

And she wasn't ready. At all. She didn't know what she was going to be wearing. She didn't know how she should act. Professional? This was her boss. But they were dating, right? So should she go for a more relaxed attitude? Maybe smile a bit more then necessary, giggle a lot? Chrome tried faking a giggle. It didn't work.

She needed someone to talk to. Someone to calm her down. She rushed out of her closet and grabbed her phone, about to hit a few buttons when she noticed she still hadn't closed out of her earlier conversation with Lambo. Should she go through with her promise? She'd been in love with Tsuna for close to six years. Her feelings had intensified once she got into college. But they'd only been in a relationship for two, three days. Wasn't this a bit soon?

Pushing those thoughts away, she closed out of the message and dialed a few numbers. The receiver picked up the phone on the second ring. Which was probably good because Chrome was seriously starting to hit the panic button, and was debating whether or not to run up the walls.

"Hello?"

"Rukia!" Chrome gasped.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH. You wish to speak to my third daughter. Very well, very well...give me a moment." The voice pulled away from the receiver. "RUUUUUUUKIIIIIAAAAA! A darling damsel in distress is calling for youuuuuuuuu!"

"Thanks Isshin." Rukia said as she took the phone. "Hello?" she asked, hoping the person would identify themselves. But Chrome had gone into rant mode.

"I have fourteen minutes and I don't know what to wear and I've never eaten anything russian and I don't know what to say or how to act and he's always so calm and composed I can never tell what he's thinking and I can't tell a joke or laugh to save my life and how am I supposed to act like a lover if he makes me feel turned on just by standing in the same room I don-"

"Chrome? Chrome!" Rukia shouted. "Chrome, you need to calm down. Stop pacing."

Chrome stopped walking, slightly bouncing on the pads of her feet with one hand wrapped around her chest, supporting the hand that was holding the phone to her ear as well as holding the towel in place. She bit her bottom lip in worry as she stared at her door.

"Now," Rukia continued in a soothing voice. "What happened?"

Chrome took a deep breath. "Boss asked me out on a date. We're going to a Russian restaurant in thirteen minutes, and I'm not ready at all, I have no clue what to we-"

"Chrome. Stop." Rukia said firmly. "Calm down. Answer my questions with the minimal amount of information."

"...okay." Chrome said.

"Good. Now, why can't you decide what to wear?"

"It needs to be something slightly classy. But I wanna be able to relax, so I wanted to wear something I like to wear. But...you know what I like to wear. And, I don't want to embarrass Boss. But, this is a personal thing...I can't go with him and act all professional...right?"

"...Chrome. Do you want to go into this being his secretary, or his lover?"

"...Lover..."

"Then screw what other people think of you! Go out with him tonight in what you want, enjoy yourselves, and get back to your hotel slightly earlier then normal."

"Why?"

"So you have enough time."

"Time for...?"

Rukia just chuckled.

Chrome blushed. "I...I'm not sure if he's completely interested."

"...What in God's name made you ever think that Tsuna wouldn't be interested in you?"

"Um...because, well, he just..."

"Chrome, be confident. No matter what you're wearing, if you're acting confident, you always get the guys to turn their heads. Just grab something to wear that you know he'll like, and do what you normally do. I guarantee Tsuna will drop his jaw and start panting like a dog the moment he sees you."

"Ah..but, I don't know what he likes. That's the problem."

"Well...couldn't you ask?"

"..."

"Right, you're not _that_ straightforward. Um, what about...um-"

Suddenly Rukia's voice got distant. He could here her yelling, but couldn't quite tell what she was saying since a much deeper voice came over the line. "Chrome."

"Ah...Strawberry?"

She heard a light growl come from the other end. "Ichigo! Sorry, um, about that."

"Chrome." He said again, this time a bit more sharply.

"Yes?" she whispered as she began to put her hair up into her classic pineapple. Ichigo was kinda scary when he got like this. She didn't want to anger him further.

"The few times I've gotten enough alcohol into your boss to get him to have a decent conversation with me without him virtually pissing his pants, we talked about three things. The weird shit in our lives. How odd our friends are. And the women we're interested in."

Chrome heard Rukia grow quiet on the other end. Ichigo, either oblivious to the silence or ignoring it, continued. "He told me a lot about you...or more precisely, what exactly about you turns him on. Now, how long till he's going to pick you up?"

"Ten minutes."

"That should be plenty. Now, I'm guessing you don't want him thinking straight at all?"

"..."

"You're deafening. Alright then, lets get started..."

Tsuna was in a pinstriped suit, his gloves on as always, adjusting his white tie as he knocked on Chrome's door. "It's unlocked." She softly called. Tsuna shrugged, wondering why she was so quiet.

He opened her door and instantly put a hand under his jaw to keep it from dropping, feigning a contemplative look as his eyes widened.

Chrome had her back to him. She was wearing a white, strapless dress that went from the top of her chest to just above her knees. Tan stalkings covered the rest of her legs, ending at her small, ruby red two inch heels. She was in the process of running her fingers through her hair, letting it fall down her back as he opened the door. She turned as she heard him enter the room. Her lips seemed to faintly sparkle as she smiled at him, the edges of her lips barely turning up but all the same conveying the same message of happiness. her hair hung across the right side of her face, as it seemed to do often. She brushed it away, tucking it behind her ear, to reveal that she wasn't wearing her eyepatch. Instead, when she opened her right eye, Tsuna saw...another eye. It was perfectly identical to her left. He would have thought this odd, if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't thinking a whole lot right then. He had been captured by her stare.

"It's fake." She said.

"What?" asked Tsuna, dazed, but out of her trance. He removed his hand from his jaw, clamping down on his teeth hard.

"The eye." She explained.

Tsuna nodded.

"I don't know if I like it too much. It feels weird. What do you think Boss?" She asked, walking up to him till she was inches away. She cocked her head, her hair falling from behind her ear to slightly shade her face. "How do I look?" she asked softly.

Tsuna mentally put each letter in front of the other so that he could say what he wanted to without stuttering. "Beautiful." he whispered.

Chrome smiled, a blush covering the top of her cheeks. "Thank you...Boss." She whispered back, lightly kissing him on the left cheek, probably the same spot she had the night they met. Tsuna, now more used to contact with the opposite sex, didn't blush nearly as hard as he had that first night. Instead, he held out his hand as she pulled away. "Shall we go?" he asked. Chrome nodded, taking it.

They were in the restaurant, sitting at a nice, two person table. All around them were other couples similar to them, but not nearly as young. From the looks they had gotten as they had been escorted to their seats, it seemed the rich in this town were just as in the know as the poor.

Chrome thought about how tense Tsuna looked as he picked at his caviar. The band playing russian classical music in the background didn't seem to be helping his mood either. Each time they suddenly changed notes, he would tense, glancing around.

"It's okay Boss. No one's going to attack." Chrome whispered to Tsuna, causing him to quickly glance at her.

"Hayato-sempai filled me in on what's going on. He also told me that according to Dino-san, Longchamp-san, and Uni-chan, they've been free of attacks as well."

Tsuna's eyes widened in shock, and something else that she hadn't seen in Tsuna's eyes in years. "Shit." he quietly swore under his breath.

"It's okay Boss." She said, trying to calm her Boss down, ignoring his dilated pupils or his widened eyes. "It's okay. Your suspicion was right, which means they probably wont be doing anything until the meeting. Tonight, you're safe. Relax." Her voice rose a bit in pitch, ever so slightly pleading. "Please?"

Tsuna looked at her. Slowly, his eyes went back to their normal size. "Yes...I'll relax. It's okay. Thanks, Chrome." He smiled.

They made small talk for the rest of the night, talking about how school was going for Chrome, how all of their friends from college were doing, Tsuna's refusal to wear a simple black and white suit, and the next thing Kiskue was probably up to.

Chrome enjoyed it. It was nice being able to talk to the man she loved in such a...normal way. She didn't laugh or smile very often, and when she talked, she didn't waste words, but she could tell that Tsuna was enjoying himself anyway.

They were walking in a park nearby the hotel. You could see the sign for the Dream Sky over the treetops, lighting their way back. They took their time anyway, walking slowly, smiling at everything in general.

"You know," Tsuna said, "It feels like we've been dating forever. Like we always were this intimate, we just never acknowledged it."

Chrome nodded. She had been thinking the same thing. "We're close." was all she said. Tsuna nodded.

Tsuna looked up to the skies. Clear. Full of stars. The moon hanging off on his right. It was so peaceful.

He knew that the earth he stood on was very different. He thought about what Chrome had told him. He stiffened.

Chrome, her arm wrapped around his, felt it. She looked up to see the same expression she had seen momentarily at dinner. She squeezed his arm. "Boss..." she sighed. "It's going to be okay."

"How do you know?" He asked hollowly. "How can you know? We're mortal, Chrome. No matter how powerful we are, no matter how people treat us, we can be killed just as easily as any of the men and women sleeping in the buildings outside this park. And then all we have...all of this..." he looked down at Chrome, raising his other hand to cup her cheek. "It will all be gone."

Chrome couldn't say anything to that. He had spoken the truth. Nothing he had said was wrong...per say.

"Boss. You can move faster then the average bullet. And my illusions, while not always the strongest, are impossible to stop. While we can be killed by the same amount of force as everyone else, we're much harder to hit, and much smarter."

She stood in front of Tsuna, stopping him in his tracks. "Don't worry Boss," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his collar. "I wont be leaving you. I'll do whatever it takes to survive and stay by your side for as long as you want me."

Tsuna hugged her, resting his head on top of hers, slowly stroking her. "...Thank you." he whispered. They stood there for many minutes before Tsuna said, in a considerably happier voice, "C'mon. We should get back to the hotel soon."

They walked through the door of the hotel, only to pause at the beginning of the lobby. In front of them stood a small army of girls. They ranged from fifteen to forty-five. Most wore orange t-shirts with Tsuna's face on them, a glowing sun behind it. Some had headbands with a heart in the middle, their name on one side, and Tsuna's name on the other. One person, about Tsuna's age even held a sign that said 'Willing to be erotic personal slave to Master Tsunayoshi.' She had ample cleavage, and piercing green eyes that were partially shadowed by her short, black bangs.

And all of them were staring like little mice set down in front of a large block of cheese. If it wasn't a lust filled gaze at Tsuna, then it was a murderous gaze at Chrome.

This irked Chrome. A lot. She had gotten irritated with the fan girls when they had first been forced to flee the hotel yesterday, but now she was really annoyed. He was hers now, yet these stupid women kept trying to throw themselves onto him like water is thrown onto a flaming house.

"Ignore them." whispered Tsuna, still staring at the girl with the sign. This annoyed Chrome too. Tsuna was allowed to look at other women, yes. And Chrome understood he had needs, but honestly, she was standing _right next to him._ She was going to have to do something about this.

Just as Tsuna turned to walk towards the elevator, he made a very big mistake. He grabbed Chrome's hand to bring her along, unconsciously intertwining their fingers.

This got a very _bad_ reception from the fangirls.

Instantly the girls began screaming Tsuna's name, voicing their displeasure at his choice in..._woman_...well, actually, they described Chrome in many different ways, that being the kindest of them.

This was starting to get on Tsuna's nerves as well. They really had no right to call Chrome the things they were. But Tsuna kept himself in check. It wasn't good to kill innocents who didn't know what they were doing was wrong. It was too much paperwork...

They finally reached the elevator, the fangirls slowly creeping up on them with their noisy screams and insults. Just as they pushed the button for the elevator to come get them, the girl with the sign burst forward from the crowd. "Master Tsunayoshi!" She cried, almost in tears. "What are you doing with this...this..._succubus_? There are so many women here that would be better for you..." she trailed off, lowering her voice. "If you need a bed warmer, I'm always willing. And I'd do it better, for free."

Tsuna looked at the fan, starting to loose his cool. "I'm not paying Chrome for _anything_. And she is a very level headed, kind, respectable young woman."

The fan snorted. "Oh, lo, this evil witch has cast her spell on our beloved master!" She cried to the fans behind her. A chorus of gasps and yells rang out as they all began to menacingly step forward. "We must free him from her grasp before it is too late!" She raised the sign like a baseball bat.

Tsuna was pissed now. This wasn't a game, and to call this an obsession would paint his 'fans' in too healthy a light. This needed to end. _Now_.

Chrome couldn't agree more. Just as the fangirls stepped within five feet of them at the elevator, which was opening, Chrome softly called to him. "Boss."

He turned from the fangirls, who he was about to begin yelling at, to Chrome. "Ye-" she silenced him with a kiss.

Everyone in the room froze.

Chrome wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down slightly as she pressed herself against him. She tilted her head a bit and moved her lips slightly, in a rhythmic motion that drove Tsuna crazy. He wrapped a hand around her waist and shoulders, pulling her close.

She leaned back slightly, breaking the kiss for a moment as she stuck out her tongue slightly, making sure everyone saw it go into Tsuna's mouth. She stole a quick glance at the fangirls as her lips met his again. They were all shocked, horrified that their beloved 'master' would choose someone so easily. Some were in tears.

Chrome smiled at her victory, breaking off again and resting her head against Tsuna's chest. She looked at the lead fangirl. "It doesn't matter how many of you he chooses...because _I_ chose _him_. He's mine now."

She escaped into the elevator with Tsuna and hit the close door button as the fangirls went into a rage.

Tsuna was smiling the whole way up. The kiss, while unexpected, had been perfect. Her lips tasted like sweet cherries. He stole a glance over to her, about to compliment her in some way when he saw her posture. She stood straight up, hands crossed in front of her as she stared at the elevator door. Something was wrong.

"Chrome?" asked Tsuna. "What's wrong?"

She didn't move. "Nothing Boss."

He shook his head. "Something's wrong. Can I help at all?"

Chrome closed her eyes.

"That girl with the sign was about our age, don't you think?"

Tsuna nodded. "Actually, she was older then you by about 13 months."

Chrome's grip on her biceps tightened.

"She seemed pretty developed."

Tsuna nodded again. "She has a twin sister too. They look exactly alike. The number of times they've offered for their 'services' would make your head spin." he smiled at their absurdity.

He stopped when he heard a small hiccup from next to him. Bending over slightly, he looked up into Chrome's closed eyes. He felt under the left one, which was damp.

Tsuna's eyes turned sad. He pulled Chrome into a hug. "You're the only one for me, Chrome."

She struggled to keep her voice even. "That's easy to say when we're alone in an elevator after I practically forced myself onto you. But when we entered the lobby...when she started waving that god awful sign...you only had eyes for her."

Tsuna tightened his grip. "Are my words not enough?" He tilted her chin up so she would look him in the eye. She finally opened them. It was a strange sight to see; her real eye glistening, her fake eye shining. "What must I do to make you feel better?" he asked, worried.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened. She looked away from him, stepping out of his grip. As his hands began to fall, she grabbed one of them and led the way out of the elevator. She kept walking, never saying a word, till they were at Tsuna's door.

Chrome turned around, facing Tsuna. She looked at him, downcast. "Boss." She began. "Have you ever...slept with a woman?"

Tsuna started at the question. _That was unexpected...maybe I should lie...no, not with the way she's acting; she'd see right through me. Well, here goes nothing._

"There have...been times when I've gone out for drinks with the other Guardians and had one or two too many, waking up the next morning with a horrible headache...and a naked woman next to me." he explained, not being able to meet her eyes.

Chrome nodded. "So what you're saying is no matter how nice and calm and civil you are now, a few drinks and you go for the nearest hot woman?"

"Well...it's more then 'a few'..." Tsuna tried to defend himself, but failed at Chrome's hurt gaze.

"I can't...I can't get into a relationship with a man who might turn his back on me so easily." she said.

Tsuna stiffened. He'd expected that, but it still hurt.

"So...that's why, even when you're drunk, try and remember the next couple moments, and come to me instead." She added, blushing.

Tsuna looked at her, confused. "Wha..."

She lifted the hand she was holding, grabbed his wrist, and placed the palm of his hand against her breast.

Tsuna stared for a moment.

_Oh...God..._

Chrome started him off, moving his hand slightly to get him used to the motion. When he started to move on his own, she scooted closer and kissed him. He moved his hand so he was cupping her, his other hand around her waist as she placed her arms against his chest, palms flat on his collarbone.

Tsuna's eyes snapped open suddenly, and he broke the kiss, removing his hand from her chest. "Chrome. I understand your worry, but I don't want to do this just because you feel a bit insecure or jealous." He winced at how harsh the words could sound, but they needed to be said.

Chrome shook her head. "That's not...that's not why..."

She looked at him and smiled that little smile that made his heart flutter. "I want this because I love you. I've always been insecure, and I'm a bit upset with your following, but they were bumps in the road. I've enjoyed tonight. I loved dinner. Our walk through the park was romantic. I just want to end the night...on a high note." She blushed.

Tsuna smiled, feeling his own face throb slightly. He opened the door next to him and walked in, pulling Chrome by the waist. She shut the door behind them.

Tsuna stopped suddenly, letting his hand at her waist slide down. He used his other hand to slip under the hem of her dress, gently massaging her thigh before grabbing it, lifting her leg and encouraging her to wrap it around him. She did, then using the hand behind her as a support, wrapped her other leg around his hips, ankles crossing.

Now her face was slightly above his, and she wasted little time before taking advantage of this. She leaned, pressing down as she passionately kissed Tsuna. Not to lose control, Tsuna opened his mouth a bit more then normal, letting her enter before quickly licking the side of her tongue. Taking her quick gasp as a sign she was off guard, Tsuna hopped back a few feet before letting his left leg collapse and help them fall on the bed.

Untangling themselves, they crawled up the bed, kicking off their shoes. Chrome removed her stockings as Tsuna took off his vest. He undid his tie and watched as she smiled at him mischievously before removing a garter belt and panties from under the hem of the dress. Tsuna smiled back, taking off his shirt as he pulled her close, positioning himself above her.

They kissed for a bit before Tsuna began to trail down her neck, softly licking her collar bone as he passed by. "Boss." Chrome quietly moaned. When he reached the top of her dress, he paused briefly, looking up. "You ready?" he asked.

She nodded, leaning her head back, biting her bottom lip in anticipation.

She closed her eyes as she felt the top of her dress slowly be pulled down, and a new sensation flooded through her body. It pulsed at first before racing to her breasts, as at the same time she felt Tsuna close around her, softly licking her as if trying to keep her from hardening so quickly.

She ran her hands through his hair, petting him. "Tsuna." She gasped.

Lambo was woken from a very pleasant dream involving himself, his old chinese friend, and one young sky arcobaleno by his phone ringing loudly. Grumbling, he reached out to grab it, flipping it open and reading the message. Then reading the message again. And again. Then letting his eyeballs pop out the foot needed to examine each pixel of each character in the message again.

_To:The Bull_

_From: The Owl_

_Subject: Money_

_Where's my 80%?_

**Meeting starts next chapter. Thank you for reading, I hope you all liked it.**


	6. Chapter 6: Clean Races in Clean Suits

**And another chapter for all of you. This one might not be the best, mostly because I'm transitioning from light fluff and humor to more darker tones. The characters might also seem REALLY OOC, but I hope the story can explain why.**

**R4P1D: I wouldn't expect him to be after being a Boss for close to 10 years :). I had fun writing the fangirls in, mostly to express my general frustrations with Twilight (Sorry if you like it, but I don't). If you have the money and conenctions, you can gamble on most anything. **

**dJhAmystery: Thank you! I think Chrome is very strong, mentally, so I like to put that into what I write. And Lambo is always the best person to pick on, isn't he?**

**Read on, and please review. I hope you enjoy.**

"_Tsunayoshi-kun...Live well...Live...For her...And be happy..."_

Tsuna's eyes snapped open.

He let them slide closed again as he slowly loosened the jaw he had unconsciously clenched. Taking deep breaths, he opened his eyes again. The sun was still down, but he knew he wouldn't be falling back asleep.

Beside him, he felt something shift. Looking over, he smiled at Chrome, snuggled up against him. She rested a leg across him, her other one lined up with his as she hugged him around his chest. Her head was on top of his shoulder, with his arm wrapped under and behind her to keep her close, his hand resting on her hip.

Her arms tightened around him as she mumbled something. Listening to her breathing, he knew she was still sleeping. He slightly shook his head. _She really does worry about me too much._

Looking at her, he couldn't help but blush. Her purple hair was all around, blocking the majority of her face from his view. Brushing her hair out of the way, he looked at her. She still had her fake eye in, so her eyepatch was missing. Looking at her this way, her nose seemed smaller then most peoples. But it was her mouth that caught his attention, or more precisely, the small smile on her lips.

_Maybe I will be getting some more sleep_ Tsuna thought happily.

He put the hand that wasn't holding Chrome under her head, lifting it slightly. Turning his body so he was facing her, he took her leg and draped it over his hips. The other leg, he lightly wrapped in his. Setting her head down on the pillow, he wrapped his now free arm around her, hugging her close to him.

Tsuna decided to finish it all off with a kiss to Chrome's forehead before closing his eyes again. He could feel himself drifting off to sleep.

_His eyes couldn't leave the blood splattered wall. It had been such a pretty white before, now marred with a violent spray of crimson dots. He forced himself to look away as he heard a quiet voice rasp his name..._

"_Tsunayoshi-kun...Live well...Live...For her...And be happy..."_

With a quiet yelp, his eyes shot open again. His whole body hurt from how much he had stiffened, tensed, poised as if he was surrounded by men with guns.

He heard a yawn below his head. He looked down and mentally scolded himself. Chrome shifted again, looking up at where his face would be, eyes still closed. "Tsu...na?" she quietly yawned, still very tired.

"Go back to sleep." He cooed, smiling at her as he softly, slowly rubbed circles into her back.

Chrome moaned softly, shaking her head. She cracked her eyes open, tilting her head up some more, searching for Tsuna's face in the dark room.

He leaned down, knowing what she wanted, and kissed her. She responded, lightly nipping his bottom lip. Pulling away, Tsuna sighed. "Now will you go back to sleep?"

She smiled, shaking her head. "Nope." She giggled. Unwrapping one hand from around his chest, she pushed on his shoulder that wasn't resting on the mattress.

She pushed until he was lying on his back. Chrome straddled him, lying down on top of his chest. Kissing him again, she whispered. "That...before...that was wonderful."

Tsuna nodded. He sighed, looking at the time. "I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep now. And it's...3:30." He made eye contact. "Well?"

"Way ahead of you Boss." She said. Lifting her hips, she looked skywards with closed eyes and gasped as she slid down. Tsuna put his earlier memories behind him and lost himself in his lover's body.

* * *

Tsuna looked at the clock again. 6:00.

He heard the water shut off in the bathroom on the other side of the room. Tsuna looked towards the door as Chrome opened it, light blue towel wrapped around her. "Enjoy yourself?" He asked, smiling. Chrome nodded, smiling back.

"Well..." she said. "I don't know if the word is 'enjoy'. I don't know if there is anything I can describe with the word 'enjoy' anymore."

"Why not?" Tsuna asked, feigning a serious, brooding face. Chrome saw right through him, giggling a bit.

"Because that word has been reserved for my favorite activity." she said, walking closer to Tsuna, where he stood against the opposite wall, dress shirt and black pants already on, orange and white stripped tie and black vest lying on the bed -with new sheets- waiting to be put on.

She stopped when she was right in front of him, smiling mischievously. "Since I've met you, there really is only one thing I now...enjoy." she finished, eyes lidded as she leaned in.

Tsuna, much to her dismay, didn't respond right away. He continued leaning against the wall, smiling his own knowing smile. "Well then...being the nice boss I am..." his arms encircled her shoulders as she placed her hands against his chest. "...I like it when my subordinates enjoy themselves..." He placed his forehead against hers. "...So...I think I may just have to help you in this 'activity'." He finally leaned down, kissing her.

Chrome enjoyed the moment a bit before breaking off, leaning back slightly and looking at Tsuna. "But Boss, this isn't fair. I thought we took showers and cleaned up because we were done...and now we're getting ready to start again...which means another shower..."

"I didn't know you had such a distaste for hygiene." Tsuna said, stroking her, running a hand through her hair. "And I didn't think you'd mind starting again after a relaxing break...although, I had also thought you were done calling me Boss..."

"Boss is Boss. No matter how close we are." Chrome said. "Think of it as my pet name for you. And I don't mind, I just think it's a waste of water...think of all the time we wasted...time that could have been used for better things."

"Would it still be a waste if we took one together?" Tsuna asked, serious.

Chrome blushed. "Not...as much."

Tsuna smiled. "My pet name, huh?"

Chrome nodded.

"Well, it's not much of a pet name if you stop using it as soon as the lights go off." Tsuna said, burying his face in her neck, placing his lips against her pulse and gently sucking.

Chrome held back a yelp.

"You know, I've noticed something about your pet name." Tsuna continued. "It seemed to go away once a certain amount of your clothing had been removed."

He pulled away from her neck just enough to be able to look her in the eye. "Shall we test my theory?" he asked as he slipped a single finger in between her breasts, slightly tugging on the towel.

"What time is it?" she asked, voice wavering.

"6:05" he replied, holding eye contact as he lightly followed her jugular vein up to her jaw line, tracing it with his nose before softly kissing her ear.

"Do we have enough time?" she asked, turning her head and kissing his jaw.

"I can get us there in under five minutes if we fly...and leave the others behind." he tilted his head and kissed her, beginning to tug down the towel...

Tsuna watched her eyes widen before she began blushing. "Still modest?" he asked. She broke eye contact. Tsuna smiled. "It's okay. If you don't want to do it now, then we wont. I'm interested in more then just your body."

Tsuna pulled his hand away from the towel, straightening up and looking at Chrome with both happiness and longing. Chrome looked at him for a moment before sighing. "Tonight?" she asked.

Tsuna sighed as well. "I don't know...we need to be on guard for anything. Things usually get more dangerous after the meeting has started, and I've made someone angry. And, though we're all part of an alliance, only the people we know personally are really trustworthy. I don't want them to target you just because we're close. I couldn't bear it if something happened to you because of me." He looked at Chrome. She looked downcast.

He smiled. "Besides, aren't you even the least bit sore? We do need time to recover." Trying to lighten the mood, he playfully tickled behind her ear.

Chrome giggled a bit. "I guess." She gave in. Then she stopped. "Boss, do you think Basil and Squalo slept down here today?"

Tsuna nodded. "Yeah, they're pretty good with being responsible when it comes to the meeting. They have organizations to represent. Why?"

"I need to get back to my room to change. Any recommendations on wear?"

"Armor." Tsuna said.

Chrome rose an eyebrow. "You're really bothered by this." she stated.

Tsuna nodded. "Keep your guard up, Chrome."

"I always do Boss." she said as she walked out the door, covering herself in mist illusion as she threw the towel back at him.

* * *

Tsuna knocked on Chrome's door. "Come in." She called softly.

He opened the door, walking in. Chrome was slipping on smaller dress shoes, her hair flowing down her face, concealing it. She was now in her Guardian armor, a slightly heavier suit made completely of flame resistant thread. Standing, she smoothed out her skirt before looking back at Tsuna, brushing the hair out of her face. She had put back on her eyepatch, so now Tsuna could look at her and not feel overwhelmed by the stare she had gained with a second eye.

Tsuna walked closer, unconsciously pulling on the bottom of his gloves to make sure they were still all the way on. He rose an eyebrow as he looked at the long locks going down Chrome's shoulders and back.

"A little fruit told me that you like it when I let my hair down." She said, smiling. Her smile faded when Tsuna frowned. "Why? Do you not like it?"

"No, no...I think it looks fine." Tsuna said, still frowning.

"But...?" Chrome tried to coax out of him what was bothering him.

"Nothing." he said. "You look very good with your hair down." Tsuna began to absentmindedly pet her.

Chrome suddenly understood. She stared at Tsuna, shocked. "Thank you...However, since we're going out in public, would you prefer I...put it back up?"

Tsuna's eyes twitched. "I-it's really your choice..."

Chrome just smiled. "Never thought of you as the possessive type Boss."

Tsuna sighed, hand dropping back to his side. "More like jealous. I'm excited that you're wearing your hair down more, but I'd kinda like it...if I was the only one to...you know, see it down...for now."

Chrome looked at him thoughtfully. "One condition."

"What?" asked Tsuna.

"I'll keep my hair up on one condition."

"Okay...what?" asked Tsuna. "What could you want?"

Chrome grabbed Tsuna's hand, closing around his wrist and bringing it up to her face. She rubbed his knuckles against her cheek lightly. "If you are going to be the only man to see me with my hair down, then I want to be the only woman who feels these gloves against her skin."

Tsuna rose an eyebrow. "Hardly seems fair for you. All I have to do is not touch anyone. You have to style your hair differently now."

"Using a style I've had for close to ten years? Besides, I'm only really that comfortable around you." Explained Chrome.

Tsuna nodded. "Well, we should probably get moving. Head over to the elevator, I'll go wake Basil and Squalo."

Chrome nodded, looking back at her closet before she left. "We bringing the memento's along?"

Tsuna nodded. "They freak everyone out."

Chrome went back to her closet, grabbing one last article of clothing as Tsuna left the room.

* * *

Squalo yawned as he zipped up his combat uniform. Beside him, Basil stumbled a bit before rubbing his neck and straightening up, buttoning up his white jacket to the right height.

Tsuna had swung by each of their rooms to let them know it was time to go. They had been smart and tried to go to sleep at a reasonable time the night before, but the caffeine in their systems had kept them up just long enough where it was difficult for Tsuna to get them out of bed. He had finally gotten them out of bed when he positioned himself in the right spot in Squalo's room, summoned up his best Xanxus impression, and threw a large tuna at him, telling him to get up "you fucking trash!" This resulted in Squalo instantly waking up and unconsciously attacking the spot where Tsuna was standing. He had sidestepped, and Squalo had attacked the wall that connected his room to Basil's. This had caused Basil to jump in fright, just in time for Tsuna to pick up a mackerel and throw it at a confused Basil from behind Squalo. Then, discreetly setting up coolers of frozen fish Tsuna had gotten from the waitresses with a bat of his eyes and a smile, he left the two alone to finish their fish fight.

And now they walked to the elevator, fully awake and ready for the upcoming meeting.

As they rounded the corner and turned to face the elevator, their eyes widened in surprise. Standing on either side of the elevator were two figures in suits, one male, one female. The man had no jacket, instead choosing just a vest. They both had fedora hats on their heads, the man's sitting on his head normally but still shadowing his face, the woman's cocked to the right. The man's had a strip of orange cloth wrapping around the hat. The woman had a similar strip, but hers was indigo.

"Chrome-dono, Tsuna-dono, thou shine mysteriously and regally. Good job." Said Basil.

Chrome turned her head so that she could look at Basil with her eye. The right side of her face was heavily shadowed by the fedora, but you could still make out the eyepatch. "Thanks Basil-kun."

"Are we all ready to go?" asked Tsuna, lifting his head to look at them from under the fedora. Squalo suppressed a shiver. "VOOOOIII. Sawada, you really look too much like that baby tutor of yours when you do that."

"That's the idea Squalo." Said Tsuna as the elevator doors opened. "That's the idea." The four of them entered the elevator, Tsuna and Chrome in the back, Squalo and Basil in the front.

As they began to descend, Chrome's nose wrinkled. She lightly tugged on Tsuna's sleeve. He looked over, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you smell fish?" she whispered.

* * *

"Hello again, Cheryl." said Tsuna as the four of them stopped by the front desk. "Would you mind calling our car?" he asked politely.

Cheryl nodded curtly. "One moment please."

Tsuna looked at her, confusion dancing through his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." she replied tight-lipped.

"Liar." Tsuna countered.

"It's none of your business." she said.

"...Liar. You were smiling until you saw me." He said, thinking about how she had changed as he and Chrome had stepped out of the elevator.

"I'm _fine_, Master Sawada. Your car has arrived and is in the pick up lane. Good day." she finished, quickly turning to someone else.

Tsuna shrugged. He'd figure it out eventually.

* * *

Tsuna checked his watch. 6:40

Driving around in a large, black, armored car is a quick way to get a missile shot at you. Instead, they chose a large, white, armored SUV. Much less conspicuous.

Tsuna and Basil sat in the back, Squalo and Chrome in the middle. Their driver was a middle aged woman in clothing that shouldn't be worn by anyone above the age of twenty.

_Going for the soccer mom look, are we?_ silently asked Tsuna as he closed his eyes in thought. Normally he spaced out during the meetings. The Vongola information network was nearly perfect, and Kusakabe always gave him a heads up if the Foundation found anything strange. So Tsuna went into the meeting knowing if anything important was going to be discussed.

But now he had to find a way to talk to the other bosses without giving away what he was asking. Tsuna searched his memory for any subjects they could talk about, any hints he could drop to get the point across. He looked out the tinted window as they drove down the street. Suddenly his eyes opened wide. "Driver, stop!" he ordered.

The driver slammed on the breaks, turning around to look at Tsuna. "What is it, sir?" she asked, worried.

"DONUTS!" Screamed Tsuna as he jumped out of the car, carelessly running through traffic as he bolted for the sweet shop in front of him.

His three companions watched him for a second, mouths agape, before bolting out of the car as well, trying to grab Tsuna and shake some sense into him for jumping out of his safe, armored SUV into rush hour traffic.

Tsuna entered the sweet shop as Chrome reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Boss!" she said. "What're you doing?"

"Socializing, it's good for us." he said offhandedly as he walked over to pick up a box of freshly made donuts.

"Boss, do we really have the time to be getting donuts? The meeting starts in 45 minutes." said Chrome.

"Well, we didn't get anything to eat at the hotel. Which was probably a good thing, for being a luxury resort, the food isn't the best. Anyway, we need to get something to eat to get our minds working. Besides, we can always eat in the car." he winked as he walked over to the counter to pay for his sudden snack.

As he set down the box of donuts on the counter, he smiled at the female clerk, who immediately came to his aid. "How can I help you, sir?" she said, looking over his attire. "In the end, I simply need you to tell me how much this costs to the extreme." Tsuna smiled.

The clerk nodded, smiling as well. She rang up the box of donuts and he paid for them, turning around to wave at Basil and Squalo as they dodged their last car and burst into the store. "Ah, you guys are just in time. Donut?" He asked, pulling one out of the box and eating it as he held the box forward, waiting patiently.

They stared at him for a moment before, as one, kicking the box up into the air, and over Tsuna's head. "VOOOOOOOIIIII! SAWADA! WE HAVE A MEETING TO GET TO, AND YOU'RE BUYING DONUTS!"

Tsuna stared at him, confused. "Yeah...?" he trailed off.

Squalo threw his hands up into the air, turning and marching out of the store, stabbing any car that would dare get in his way.

Basil just shook his head. "Tsuna-dono, that was very dangerous of thou. What would thou hast done if thine been hit by a car?"

Tsuna smiled wider. "But, I wasn't! See? My suit is sparkling clean!" He tugged at his sleeve to emphasize.

Basil nodded his head. "Okay..." He said, unsettled by Tsuna's cheer. He turned around and waited outside, closing the door behind him.

Chrome watched Tsuna. She had no idea what was going on, so she decided to just sit and wait, to see if anything happened that would explain why he was acting like Hibari after watching a criminal get the death penalty. It worked almost all the time.

The number of questions increased, however, when a familiar figure walked up next to Tsuna. "In the end, you are still as idiotic as always."

His face had lost the little roundness it had in middle school, and his hair was longer and in a small braid going down to the top of his shoulder blades, but his weird glasses and smug smirk would always give away his identity as Aoba Koyo.

He looked at Tsuna, coming up on the side opposite from Chrome, smiling at Tsuna in that taunting way he reserved for Ryohei. "Not even your extreme idiot would be so stupid as to leave his armored car to run into traffic."

Tsuna didn't reply, instead simply staring out the door windows, chewing the last of his donut.

Koyo's eye twitched. "Hmph. Still as pretentious as always. You really are a Vongola."

Tsuna began walking to the door.

"W-wait, Tsunayoshi-" Koyo outstretched his hand, trying to grab onto Tsuna and get him to talk.

He quickly turned the direction the hand was going, raising his forearm to the side to block the incoming pole. He saw a small purple wave before he raised his other forearm to block the spikes of Chrome's trident.

Chrome didn't like this. She didn't like how quickly Tsuna had forgiven the Shimon after the battles on Shimon's island. She didn't like the uneasy alliance the two families had agreed to three years later. Out of all the Guardians, she was the only one who would ever treat the Shimon with any form of distaste. Most of the other Guardians accepted the alliance happily, Hibari's battle lust was sated with the frequent fights that he got out of Adelheid, and Mukuro thought that everyone was below him. Only Chrome truly hated the Shimon.

She glared at Koyo for a while. He glared right back.

Chrome heard a light snort from behind him. "What's this? You can't even take down the weakest of the Guardians?" taunted a feminine voice.

Suzuki Adelheid hadn't changed really at all since middle school, except she grew taller and her face got more angles. Other then that, she was a carbon copy of her teenage self.

Koyo _hmph_ed. "It's not like I'm trying. I could snap her and her portable stripper pole in two right now. In the end, I choose not to."

"Good, because the second you tried, Tsuna would cleave you into thirds."

Koyo slid back across the floor slightly, as if being pulled. Adelheid stopped moving period, as if being pulled down by something.

Kozato Enma, unlike his bodyguards, actually had changed. A hair taller then Tsuna, Enma sported a trench coat that was unbuttoned from his diaphragm to his collar, accenting his otherwise plain suit. He wore combat boots instead of regular dress shoes. Not very good attire for running around in battle, but when you could make everything in your vicinity come to you, mobility isn't a high priority. His hair had gotten less unruly, being cut to a shorter length so his bangs extended only to the tops of his eyebrows. But most of all, he seemed to have gained an inner peace. He'd calmed down since his fight with Tsuna left him lying at his former friend's feet, begging for answers. Tsuna simply replied with brushing aside the vindice that had come to claim the Shimon and leaving Enma to invent his own answer. In a way, it had let him come to terms with the weakness of his family, and forge it into something much, much stronger.

He now looked Chrome up and down, ignoring his bodyguards who were in obvious discomfort. "Either Gokudera is investigating something extremely important or Tsuna finally gathered the nerve to ask you out." he said.

"You sound like you already know the answer." said Tsuna finally turning around, throwing a quick glare at each of the Shimon guards before facing his colleague.

Enma nodded. "I do. And the both of you look sparkling today. Almost like this weird guy with a mohawk in a suit I ran into earlier today. He had a Russian chick with him. They were both so clean, they glowed."

Tsuna nodded. "Yeah, our suits have been very clean. Not a bit of dirt on them. And I got calls from my little sister and big brother, and apparently they're staying clean as well. What about you?"

"I feel like Billy Mayes." Answered Enma.

Tsuna smirked. "I always knew you had a faint heart..."

Enma scoffed. "So funny, Tsuna." He brushed past, releasing his powers on his bodyguards and letting them follow. They both glared at Chrome as they walked out.

"Why does he have two bodyguards?" asked Chrome.

"The Shimon like to mess with people. They purposefully break the rules just to anger the other bosses." replied Tsuna, his face losing it's smirk. He walked back outside, ignoring Basil's questions as he re-entered the SUV.

* * *

7:10.

The numbers kept flashing from the dashboard as the SUV continued on it's trek to wherever it was going.

Chrome stared out the windows, mentally marking each place that a good sniper or bazooka wielding assassin would place themselves.

"DRIVER, STOP!" Yelled Tsuna for the 37th time.

"What, Master Sawada?" Asked the driver, annoyed.

"...Oh, never mind. I thought I saw a stray cat about to begin crossing the road. Keep going, please." he said offhandedly.

Everyone in the van sighed.

"Tsuna-dono, is thou stalling for time?" asked Basil.

"Of course not. Of course I want us to arrive on time." said Tsuna, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"VOOOOIII! WE'RE HERE!" yelled Squalo as he jumped out of the still moving van, trying desperately to get away from Tsuna and his sudden bout of weirdness.

The others exited the vehicle only to jump forward and dodge a speeding pick up truck. The pick up slid to a stop a few feet away and out piled out the Shimon.

"In the end, we're almost late!" Panicked Koyo as he rushed toward the hospital in front of him.

"It's all Enma's fault! If he hadn't hit the brakes for all those imaginary stray cats, we would have been here twenty minutes ago!" yelled Adelheid as she caught up somehow in her three inch heels.

"How was I supposed to know they weren't real?" Enma defended.

"Why does that sound so familiar?" asked Basil as he stood.

Tsuna was already running after the Shimon, Chrome right behind him.

Basil sighed. _Never a dull moment._

Tsuna caught up to Enma as they entered the hospital. It wasn't the tallest building in the area, or the brightest, but it was certainly the cleanest. The white walls were constantly being monitored for any signs of needing to be repainted. The windows were always being washed, and the floors were always being swept and mopped.

"Hey, Enma, how about a race?" asked Tsuna as they stopped quickly to fill out various forms so that everyone could enter the hospital.

"No cheating?" Asked Enma.

"No cheating." assured Tsuna.

"Where's the finish line?"

"The door to the meeting room, on the fourteenth floor, final door."

"Alright, we're in. Loser has to pay for the winners meals at the gathering this weekend?"

"As always."

"All family has to be at the door for it to be a win?"

"Sure."

Enma turned up to Adelheid. "Adelheid, Koyo! If you truly have pride as a Shimon, you'll reach the meeting and gossip with everyone about Vongola's love life!"

Tsuna and Chrome's heads snapped to Enma. "Wha-huh?" Tsuna gibbered.

Enma pulled out two pictures from his trench coat. One was a picture of him and Chrome kissing at a far distance on a dimly lit street. The next was a picture of Chrome passionately kissing Tsuna as the fan girls watched in horror.

Tsuna was shocked that Enma had these pictures in his position, but not at their existence. He and Chrome were like celebrities here; the second someone got any proof that they were anymore then business partners, it would have spread like wildfire anyway.

"The other bosses probably got news of this, didn't they?" asked Tsuna defeatedly.

Enma nodded.

Tsuna turned to the other three Vongola representatives. "If we don't win, I'm taking Chrome out of here and leaving the two of you to cover for me." He threatened.

Basil paled slightly. "B-but...Tsuna-dono, if thou doesn't represent the Vongola...all hell may very well break loose from the minds of those evil dastards upstairs!"

"Exactly." said Tsuna cooly.

Squalo just snorted. "I wasn't planning on loosing to the arrogant bitch anyway!" and with his trademark battle cry, he bolted past everyone, quickly making his way to the elevator, the Shimon guards on his heels.

Tsuna turned around and stared at Chrome. She wasn't going to have the easiest time keeping up with everyone. Not exactly her fault, with what she was wearing and the fact that she was an _illusionist._ Being as physically fit as a boxer or swordsman is not a very high priority.

He smiled. "Well, since everyone probably already knows..." he walked right in front of Chrome, sliding to the side as she looked at him questioningly. Picking her up, he held her close to his chest as he darted to the end of the hallway, sliding into the elevator as the doors closed.

Adelheid and Koyo were up against the back of the large elevator, being the first ones there. Squalo was to the side, glaring at the close proximity he had to everyone. Basil was almost in the center, straightening his tie and wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. Enma stood in the front corner across from the buttons, straightening his released gloves on his hands - "For the shock factor" - and Tsuna was right in front of the door, watching the floor number tick upwards and holding Chrome in his arms, who was trying very hard to be invisible, avoiding the gazes of everyone else in the elevator.

No one spoke, creating an uncomfortable silence as the elevator went up. It didn't help that Katy Perry's song _Teenage Dream_ started playing softly on the speakers at floor three.

The elevator opened on the fourteenth floor. This floor wasn't the highest or grandest floor. You never would have thought anything exceptional about it if you weren't on the floor itself. Once you got there, though, your opinion quickly changed.

The floor wasn't being used at all, which means no noise was coming from anywhere. At all. The walls weren't as white or sparkly as the ones on previous levels, and every once and a while a light would flicker. All the doors were shut, and the windows all had the shades drawn. The hallway they ran down as the elevator closed behind them almost seemed incomplete without small puddles of dried blood and cobwebs.

Chrome had lived in similar conditions for years, and the others were used to it, so it didn't bother any of them anyway.

What did bother them was the clock on the wall that said 7:25

Five minutes to get to the other side of the floor. Needless to say, everyone was running at a very fast pace.

A turn here, a kicked open door there, and everyone started smiling at how close they were. A few more hallways, and they would be at the meeting room.

Squalo and Adelheid were in the lead, Basil and Koyo close behind. Enma and Tsuna, who refused to put Chrome down, were behind them all, trailing a bit.

Just as Koyo turned to tell Enma to hurry up, Tsuna spun and violently kicked Enma's legs.

Everyone gaped. Tsuna...cheated?

However, as Enma was falling, he grabbed Tsuna's pant leg, pulling him down as well. Tsuna turned his body so that he would land on his back, protecting Chrome.

Chrome looked up to try and see if Tsuna was alright just as he grabbed her head in his hands, pulling her up to his eye level. He leaned up slightly, his lips ghosting hers.

She would have kissed back if she wasn't utterly shocked at Tsuna's boldness. He was acting slightly bipolar, first wanting to keep their relationship a secret, then sweeping her off her feet and pulling her into kisses.

Just as it looked like Tsuna was about to kiss her, he whispered, barely audible to her. "I vote for secondary meetings all week. Watch your back."

Chrome heard a grunt from her left. She tried to turn her head, but was stopped by Tsuna quickly pecking her before picking her up again.

She looked to her left again and saw Enma straightening up before punching Tsuna in the jaw. "Thanks for about breaking my legs, hypocrite." he sneered.

"Anytime." Tsuna smiled smugly.

They both quickly walked to the black double doors at the end of the hall, where their family members were all gathered. Everyone threw sharp glances as Tsuna once or twice.

"Let's call this a tie." he said, smiling cheerfully, ignoring everyone's displeasure as he put Chrome back on her feet. Enma just snorted in agreement.

Everyone spent thirty seconds straitening their clothes before they lined up, each family single file, side by side. Squalo and Koyo took point, the bosses right behind them, the females behind them, and Basil bringing up the rear.

Chrome watched Tsuna's back ever so slightly tense. His facial expression was probably the same as his dying will face. All the air headed-ness that they had been pretending to have until now was gone. Now, they were mafia again.

As Koyo and Squalo opened the doors, Tsuna stared straight ahead, walking with purpose as they all began to move.

The meeting room was large, with three long black tables situated in a U, the ends six feet away from the walls on either side of the door. Each seat was filled, except for two at the far end of the right table, and four in the center of the middle table. The room was unremarkable otherwise, with no windows, harsh yellow lights, and dusty white walls.

_It had been such a pretty white before, now marred with a violent spray of crimson dots. He forced himself to look away as he heard a quiet voice rasp his name..._

Tsuna walked on the opposite side of the room as Enma, who was beelining for his seat. As the Shimon reached their two seats, Adelheid lightly shook her head before grabbing the seat next to Enma's, and ripping it out from underneath the man sitting in it. He looked up, yelling his protests. He quickly stopped making noise after looking into Adelheid's glare. She set the chair back down, and Koyo wordlessly slipped into it, Enma on his left, with Adelheid finishing off the row.

Tsuna reached his seat, sitting down. Luckily, the alliance had seen fit to provide them with enough chairs for everyone, so no violence occurred there. Chrome sat on his left, Squalo on his right with Basil taking the remaining empty seat.

Tsuna slightly squared his shoulders, looking at each and every person assembled. He recognized every face, though most of them were unimportant to him. Balding, old people of different ethnicity with various ex-military middle aged bodyguards. Tsuna knew that each of the bodyguards were trained killers, wanted for quite an assortment of crimes, and each Boss had a price on their head that would make people gape at the amount of money being offered. But he had the Guardians. And with the enemies he had fought, he wasn't impressed by large bounties anymore.

That's not to say every face was like that. He recognized his colleague from middle school, Naito Longchamp, smiling slightly as he held Tsuna'a gaze for a moment. The guy was funny in his own way, but he could be seriously crazy if you made him angry. He also saw the woman whom he'd unofficially adopted as his little sister, Uni, with Gamma sitting next to her. After rewriting their timeline, Tsuna had sought them both out and pledged to protect them, and the rest of the Giglionero, for as long as he could. Gamma never fully trusted him, no matter what strange dreams he had, but Uni and Aria had accepted the offer wholeheartedly.

Tsuna had to smirk when he looked at Dino. His older brother was wearing a suit like everyone else, but couldn't resist wearing his classic jacket, no matter how much Romario begged him to take it off. Dino was probably the second most aware of what was going on, shadowed only by Tsuna, with his closeness to the Guardians allowing him a certain flow of info from them, combined with his own intelligence network and his relationship with Hibari putting him on Kusakabe's "Need To Know" list.

Enma quickly rose his eyebrow's as Tsuna finished with him. _Let's get this show on the road._ he seemed to say.

Tsuna stood slowly. He looked straight ahead at the doors as he prepared to address the assembled mafia.

_The doors burst inward, shocking everyone. Three men wearing masks with Demon's on the face calmly walked in, drew their guns, and pulled the trigger, sending a hail of bullets right through the constructed lighting shield and into Ganauche. He fell to his knees, pressing one hand against his chest as his other shakily drew a gun. The man in the middle lowered his gun and shot him in the head, three times. The other two pointed their guns at Tsuna and the Ninth, pulling their triggers over and over till they were out of bullets._

_Yamamoto was already pulling Tsuna to the ground as he took one to the shoulder and three in the abdomen. The Ninth was hit twice in the right arm, four times across the chest, once in the left shoulder, once in the jaw, and one grazing past the throat. Tsuna himself felt fire come from his gut in three places and from his knee and collar._

_He looked up behind Yamamoto's quickly slouching form. His eyes couldn't leave the blood splattered wall. It had been such a pretty white before, now marred with a violent spray of crimson dots. He forced himself to look away as he heard a quiet voice rasp his name..._

"_Tsunayoshi-kun...Live well...Live...For her...And be happy..."_

_The Ninth was staring at him, almost pleading for him to hear. Tsuna nodded slightly and watched the light leave his grandfather's eyes, a small smile playing at the edge of his lips. Then Tsuna felt cold, and welcomed the feeling of nothingness spread throughout him as he watched the hitmen through the holes they had created in the table turn and slowly walk out._

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Alliance, I am standing in front of you here today in this fine and glamourous room as chairman to welcome all of you to the latest gathering of the boss's. I hope that we may all be able to share any important information over the next week and improve all of our ties and relationships. And with the thought of working towards a more peaceful, calmer tomorrow, I would like everyone to begin introductions."

**All week I've been having various plot bunnies multiply in my head as I studied and wrote various essays and in general tried to work. So I now have three 2796 series planned, after this one. But don't worry, I'm planning on finishing this one up before concentrating on anything else.**

**And, for those of you that haven't heard, R.I.P. KHR anime. May you return to us one day.**

**Thank you for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7: Photograph

**Next chapter uploaded. Thanks for the highest number of reviews for a single chapter to date.**

**TenchiSaWaDa: As always, thanks for the review. The reason behind the repitition was to show that Tsuna was having the same exact flashback over and over, but I'll try and avoid exact repeats from now on. And this chapter does give a timeline to all the important events that I'd spread out throughout the previous. Thanks for the praise.**

**Dark Raku: Yeah, from the way there personalities are practically identical, I'm banking the Shimon will eventually be allies. As for my little AN at the end of the last chapter, from the news I've heard, ep. 203 is the last KHR episode for the anime. I've heard two things about it's future, one being that animation is over (which is obvious), the other being that it's a hiatus to give the manga a bit of time to get ahead, and that animation will resume in spring 2011 (I've heard this second hand, so I don't know how reliable the info is.)**

**DeadFlash27: Thanks for all the reviews, and I'm glad you enjoy the story.**

**Warning: Long monologue segments. I apologize for the late update. Please review, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Chrome knocked at the door once. Twice. Three times.

She waited. Since the sun had not yet risen, the hallway was mostly dark, only being lit in small pockets by the hall lights.

Chrome knocked again, thinking. At the first day of the meeting yesterday, the only things that had happened were everyone introducing themselves and what families they were from, and the laying out of a basic outline of what they wanted to discuss. It all sounded boring and useless to her, but Tsuna at least pretended to pay attention, so she did the same.

But the whole time, she had been worried. When Tsuna had stood to start the meeting off, he had stared at the doors for a moment. Multiple emotions had flashed across his face...she thought. She wasn't even sure, and she'd been watching him for years, even before she had fallen for him. Even so, she couldn't understand what exactly he had been thinking. And she was sure that something had registered in his eyes before he had started. The same thing that had flashed across his face on their date.

However, that was impossible. This was Sawada Tsunayoshi she was thinking about. He was the commander of the Vongola mafia, a man who with one hand could keep all of his guardians in check while the other swept away his enemies. He'd talked and fought his way out of more situations then there were numbers to count them. There was no way he could feel...

No. She wouldn't admit it. Tsuna was smart, and calm, and always had a plan. She was just thinking things through too much. Sighing, she knocked again before listening through the door.

"Boss." Chrome called softly. "I know you're awake. Open the door. Please."

She heard a slight creak and a few quiet thumps before the door opened. Tsuna was on the other side of the entryway, staring at her tiredly. He was in nothing but his boxers, showing her how much he could have slept. The bags under his eyes told her exactly how much he _hadn't_ slept.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Tsuna looked her over. She looked nice and refreshed, in her light pink nightgown, but he could tell from the way she ever so slightly swayed that she was tired. But he knew her stubbornness. Even if he told her she needed to go back to her own room and get some sleep, she would just stay there until she could get in.

So he just nodded and wordlessly stepped out of the way.

She walked into his room. Looking at the bed, she noticed the covers were still folded, tucked under the pillows, only their tops slightly ruffled.

"You know Boss, it's easier to sleep in these beds if you get under the covers instead of lying on top of them." she said, attempting to joke a bit.

Tsuna just grunted softly in reply.

Chrome looked at him softly. "You need sleep Boss."

Tsuna rolled his eyes as he walked back over to the bed. "Yes, because knocking on my door till I wake up is really going to help me sleep." he said sarcastically.

Chrome looked down, sitting on the edge of the bed and keeping her gaze away from Tsuna as he stood next to her and the bed.

After a minute, Chrome said quietly "I know you weren't sleeping anyway. But if it makes things easier...I'll go."

Tsuna's eyes widened. "No..." he said, reaching out, lightly grabbing her arm. "That's not what I meant. I just...you're right. I'm tired, not thinking straight. But I can tell you have questions. So please, ask."

Chrome slightly bit her bottom lip, thinking for a moment. She had to approach this with some delicacy...not her strongest point. Finally, she looked up at him. "What's wrong?"

Tsuna deadpanned. "What?"

"Something's bothering you. It got really bad last night, and I could tell it only got worse as we reached the meeting and it went on and on." Chrome elaborated.

Tsuna sighed. Letting go of Chrome's arm, he laid down on the bed, making sure to slip under the sheets.

After a few minutes, Chrome stood. "Sorry for asking." She said. And it wasn't in a sarcastic or hurt way. Tsuna could tell she was genuinely sorry for asking.

He shook his head as she began to turn, sitting up and wrapping an arm around her waist. He pulled her closer, wrapping his other arm around the first and scooting over, pulling her into a sitting position on the bed, her legs under the sheets with her back against the wall. He laid his head on her lap and sighed, closing his eyes. "This isn't a short or happy story." he warned.

Chrome nodded. "Tell me anyway."

Tsuna nodded too, squeezing Chrome lightly.

"I guess all of this really started with the inheritance ceremony." began Tsuna.

"After our fights with the Shimon left us as enemies of the vindice and no longer on the Shimon's hit list, the family had a lot of organizing to do. I made a lot of people angry by sparing Enma, the Ninth's guardians included. I started receiving death threats, telling me to hunt down and finish off the Shimon or watch my family be murdered around me. When I entered high school and still adamantly held that the Shimon were no longer our enemies, people started trying to make good on those threats."

"Flash forward to three years after the inheritance ceremony. I had been attending these meetings for two years in a row, along with the Ninth. Though I didn't have any decision making power, he still wanted me to get a feel of what the meetings were like, as well as getting into the habit of inviting a Guardian along. Normally I would bring Hayato, but at the time he had to deal with his own family problems, so Takeshi came along instead."

"I had been begging for months for the Ninth to agree to a permanent alliance with the Shimon. I was finally able to convince him at that meeting. The Shimon had been attending every time, even after the fiasco of a ceremony, so it was relatively easy to approach them. After talking it over with Enma for a day, he finally agreed, and we announced the plans for the families to form an alliance like the one they had during Giotto and Cozart's time. This didn't sit well with really anyone. As soon as that day of the meeting ended, I got a call from Kusakabe telling me that my mom had been attacked. She was alive, but hurt pretty badly. I made calls to everyone warning them to be on guard. Once that was done, Takeshi and Ganauche ushered me and the Ninth back to the hotel. We still had two days of the meeting left, and we couldn't take any chances."

"But no one attacked us. At all. It sent our nerves into overdrive, like we were being played with, stalked like animals. However, no one did anything, and we walked into the second to last day of the meeting emotionally drained, but physically fine."

"That changed a few hours in."

Tsuna stopped here, simply squeezing Chrome and resting his head.

Chrome ran her fingers through Tsuna's hair. He had told her the majority of the story, so she knew he wasn't going to stop now. So she waited, giving him all the time he needed.

She heard him take in a shuddering breath. "The hospital is being paid quite a lot of money to keep that floor off limits to anyone. We have safeguards in place to warn us when someone is trying to get to us. And we don't try to advertise our presence. So we don't keep anyone posted at the doors. A few hours into that day, we were all discussing the Shimon's return to the alliance when suddenly the doors opened. They weren't kicked down. They weren't blown apart. They were simply opened. Three men walked in. They were wearing combat gear, special forces military wear. All of them were wearing masks with demonic faces printed on them."

"The three assassins walked in, pulled out pistols, and shot at the Vongola. Ganauche already had his lightning shield up, but the bullets passed right through it and into him. He fell to the ground, still trying to protect the three of us. As Takeshi pushed me to the ground, the leader of the group shot Ganauche in the head, instantly killing him."

Tsuna smiled ruefully. "In a sense, that made him the luckiest of the four of us. He suffered the least."

"As their leader killed Ganauche, the other two were already gunning the Ninth, Takeshi, and I down. The bullets went right through the desk, hitting me in the gut and leg. One ricocheted and hit my collar bone. Another few hit Takeshi in the abdomen as well, sending him to the ground. But the Ninth got the short straw, taking a third of a clip to the chest, having a bullet graze past his throat, and being hit in the jaw."

"He was mortally wounded, and we both knew it. So, he tried to rasp out his dying words to me. He..." Tsuna trailed off, pausing.

"...He knew that I liked you. He asked me to talk to you about it, to make you happy. And then he died."

Chrome was surprised that he had made his dying words at least in part about her. She had never really interacted with the ninth generation. She could count the number of times she'd met them on one hand. She would have pondered this further if she hadn't felt Tsuna move.

He looked up at Chrome, his face blank. "I watched the light leave his eyes. It was like watching a flaming piece of wood be blown out. His eyes were sorta shaking, constantly moving. They began to slow down and seemingly grow smaller, the color leaving his iris's. Then, his pupils got a bit bigger, and he stopped moving completely. And he stared. He stared right at me. He wouldn't look away. He just-"

"Boss." Chrome cut him off. "I get it." she slowly stroked his cheek. "Please...continue?" She tried to do everything she could to seem soothing. It worked, at least a little.

Tsuna nodded, looking away.

"After unloading their guns into us," he started again, "the assassins turned and left, not bothering to be on guard. No one had expected the attack, and it had occurred so quickly, everyone was trying to make sure their own bosses were safe. No one had any thought to go after the guys. When we all finally got organized, the assassins were nowhere to be found."

"By the time the paramedics had gotten to us from the ground floor, Ganauche and the Ninth were dead, Takeshi was in a coma, and I was unconscious. The two of us went through multiple surgeries and tests to get us on our feet as soon as possible. Reborn stepped in as soon as he caught wind of what was going on and kept it all quiet, forcing everyone who had seen anything to a pact of silence. So the only people who know this story are the people who were in the room that day and the Guardians, who all found out one way or another."

"Wait, Boss." Chrome stopped him, confusion and a bit of hurt entering his voice. "You mean everyone else knew about this but me?"

Tsuna looked at her sheepishly, realizing the problem with this. "Well...Lambo found out a few days ago...so it's not that big of a time gap."

Chrome looked at him cooly, emotions turning on their heads.

"You will fill me in on everything and anything after this is all over." she ordered. With how close they were, she should be the first, not last, to find out about these things.

Tsuna sighed. "Yes ma'am. May I continue?"

"Yes." she allowed tersely.

"Okay. So, after Takeshi and I got out of the hospital, I found a note inside the clothes that I had worn the day I'd been shot. Apparently when the doctors had stripped me, it had fallen out of my jacket, so they just put it back in and set it aside with the rest of my clothing."

"The note said that the attack had only been the beginning, and for trying to bring together sky and earth, I would be punished by the hand of God. It also said that there would be nothing I could do to stop it, and that people would die because of my antics."

"I don't know which frightened me more. The things these guys were saying. Or the fact that at some point between me being lifted up from under the desk and me being changed, one of those guys got close enough to me to slip a note into my jacket, and walk away, all the while being undetected."

"For the next year I panicked over every little thing that happened. I thought anything could be the start of these guys's 'Divine Punishment', and suspected anything from my mom dying in that car accident to Fuuta getting the flu. But, with everything being able to be explained, my fears were never realized. And eventually their threat faded into the back of my mind."

"Then, two years ago, you took down that kidnapping ring. I didn't think it would be related to the assassinations at all if I wasn't looking through some of the drawers in their meeting room after you had called and reported in, telling me where the place was. I wasn't able to open one of the drawers, and was starting to get pretty frustrated. I debated just blowing the thing open, but didn't want to risk damaging what was inside. Finally, I rose my head to the sky and softly asked 'Can someone please just give me the keys?', frustratedly."

"I heard a soft click and looked down. A hidden drawer had popped out of the top of the desk, revealing a key. This bothered me. It was like the drawer had been designed to open when it heard that specific phrase uttered. And, from the equipment on the inside of the drawer, I guessed it was probably designed to open only when _I_ said it. Who would know that would be exactly what I was going to say? But, resigning myself to the fact that I had come this far, so I might as well open it, I grabbed the key and put it into the drawer lock. Unsurprisingly, the drawer unlocked and I pulled it open."

"What I saw inside made me almost faint. I could feel myself break out into a cold sweat as I picked the mask out of the drawer...the same mask the lead assassin had been wearing when he shot Ganauche."

"I called Hayato, Takeshi, Kyoya, and Ryohei right away. I told them what I'd found, and we all went into overdrive trying to find out anything we could. Our search had been fruitless until about a month ago. Kusakabe called and said that The Foundation had found a bit of information regarding the masks. They were worn by assassins from the _demonio guerriero_ assassination ring. They're mercenaries and vigilantes, who specialize in taking out Mafia. From the psych evaluation Takeshi was able to give them based off the little he'd seen them and the evidence we have, he believes they think they're dealing God's wrath on the wicked."

"I had everyone try to dig up as much information on them as they could, but no luck from any of them. These guys are good. They're used to being hunted by Mafia, and as such are just as good at hiding from them as they are killing them."

"So we had a name, and part of a uniform, and a goal to match up with these guys. When this meeting swung around, I received another note from them. They said that it was time to finish what they started. So, I switched up my guard without telling anyone. This way, Hayato can be on the outside, coordinating affairs. And, as a bonus you're by my side always, for a full week."

He looked up at her, smiling sadly. "Whether or not I put you in more danger by bringing you here, at least this way I can keep you out of harms way with my own hands."

Unwrapping his arms from around her, he scooted back on the bed a bit more.

Chrome slid down, lying on her side and watching Tsuna. She looked him up and down. He was tense, a fake half smile plastered across his face.

"The feeling's mutual." She said, before snuggling up to him and closing her eye for another hour or two of sleep.

* * *

Tsuna rubbed his eyes. Slightly shifting position, he blinked a few times, facing the general direction of the boss who was currently speaking. He was talking about the rise of police action in the Netherlands...or was it in neither land? Tsuna couldn't remember.

He really needed to sleep more. But since his conversation with Chrome that morning, he couldn't fall back asleep. He'd faked it so that Chrome would relax and sleep herself.

He couldn't stop thinking about all that had happened. Trying to predict his enemies next move.

Would they go for the Guardians? Tsuna was pretty sure that he wasn't the only target. And from the way they butchered Ganauche and Yamamoto, it was pretty obvious they weren't just going to let the people around him go. But who next? Basil? Squalo?

...Chrome?

Tsuna clenched his jaw at the thought. He wasn't afraid to admit that he had decided to bring Chrome along solely for his own reasons. He wanted her to be nearby. He wanted to spend time with her. Talk and laugh and eat with her.

Tsuna wanted to make sure that if anyone would dare try to attack Chrome, he'd be able to deal with it personally.

But all this was guesswork. It had taken them years to finally set everything in motion. Why would they suddenly start rushing?

Tsuna snapped back to reality as everyone rose from their chairs, and he stood quickly as well.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending another day of our meeting, and I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Have a great day." Tsuna said, officially dismissing everyone.

Everyone began moving toward the exit, crowding the doors while watching each other closely, making sure no one tried to knife anyone else.

"Hey, little bro, those are some pretty deep bags under your eyes." a smooth voice caught Tsuna's attention as he began to space out again.

Dino smirked at him slyly. "So I'm guessing things are moving along with Chrome quite nicely?"

Tsuna rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Tsuna's old habit of resisting any sort of conformity with mafia-types was kicking in again. He liked being with Chrome. But he didn't need Dino acting like Tsuna had just won the lottery. It couldn't be _that_ amazing that he'd gotten such a beautiful woman to be his...right?

Dino scoffed, not believing Tsuna's blatant lie for a second. "Right. You know I received copies of the pictures too? They were probably sent to every boss here. You should have heard the gossip flying before you and Enma dramatically silenced everyone with your dramatic entrance as you walked to your seat...dramatically."

"Sometimes I have no idea what you're talking about Dino. You are probably implying something about my nature with the word 'dramatic', but I could never guess what. And what are these pictures you speak of?" Tsuna cocked his head to the side, feigning a look of confusion and innocence, which he could do much better as a middle schooler then he could a college graduate.

Dino's grin turned mischievous. "Oh, you haven't seen them? Well then, since I left my copies at my hotel, I'm sure I can get one of the other bosses to show them off to the roo-"

"Alright, alright, it was a bluff." said Tsuna, red faced.

Dino looked to Tsuna's left, smiling at Chrome now. "Ah, look, your lover, oh sorry, _boss_, is embarrassed to be so close to you." He was having fun riling up Tsuna. It was like dipping a cat into a cold bathtub.

Chrome looked at Dino with a blank expression. She blinked. "He isn't embarrassed to be with me. He just doesn't know how to tell you that he got a woman. After all, Boss is kind of clumsy, especially in situations like this." She explained, to Tsuna's mortification.

_Is that really how she views me? It's not exactly wrong, but I've changed some since school...right? At least I don't stutter anymore._

"Situations where he has to talk about something mildly embarrassing?" asked Dino, smiling at Tsuna and softly nudging him with an elbow. Dino knew Tsuna hated it when he did that.

"No..." said Chrome slowly, with a confused expression on her face, like Dino was an idiot for not understanding. "Situations where Boss has to talk about something like an actual romantic relationship to someone who _must_ have such a great romantic life. After all, you're a stylish, charming, rich man in his early thirties. Of course you _have to_ have beautiful woman at your side twenty-four, seven. It's not like you could possibly be _single_ or anything, right?" Chrome looked to Dino's left and right, slightly leaning to each side comically to add to the effect.

The smile was gone from Dino's face. Yes, he was _still_ single.

Tsuna tried to keep from laughing. Chrome really did hate talking to people outside the family.

Dino noticed Tsuna's attempts at being polite. A vein popped out in his forehead. There weren't many things that could make him mad. This was one of them.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself, little brother." Gritted Dino. "How would you like to go out for a cup of coffee, talk about the good old days"

"You mean the days where you could one up me?" Tsuna smiled, rubbing this in Dino's face as he began to walk to the entrance. By this time everyone else had cleared out of the room except for Tsuna, Chrome, and Dino.

Chrome trailed behind slightly as Tsuna and Dino stood side by side, walking down the halls towards the elevators. She watched in front of them through the gap between their heads. She was pouring out a little bit of mist flames as she walked, surrounding the three of them and making them appear to be about a foot ahead of where they actually were, and in different positions.

They were talking about the most random things. Politics. The weather. The size of some whale's tongue. It had to be some kind of code, but Chrome couldn't figure it out.

They reached the elevators just as Tsuna and Dino wrapped up their discussion on the use of flame generators pumping out high purity flames versus sending off random, erratic flares of killing intent for messing with Hibari. Dino was very fond of the first method, as Hibari always checked if a high purity flame showed up on the scans. Tsuna liked the second method better, because while Hibari always checked the flame readings, he practically charged toward the killing intent, destroying just about everything in his path. That's how starved the guy was for a match with Tsuna.

Entering the elevators, Chrome's eye widened. Already in the elevator was a slumped figure. He had a beer bottle in one hand and a tomato in the other. He was of average height, but the suit he wore was tight against him, his head seeming to be too small for his large body. Said head was lolling to the side, hiding his face, but the ridiculous neon green mohawk he sported gave him away.

"Naito-san, please get up." Said Tsuna, squatting and shaking Naito Longchamp, trying to get the Tomaso boss conscious.

Dino looked down with a raised eyebrow. "This is a record. The sun hasn't even begun to touch the horizon and he's out cold."

"Not anymore." Said Tsuna, standing and backing to the far side of the elevator as it began to descend.

Chrome watched the slumped figure with anticipation. From the way Dino was eyeing him warily, and Tsuna seemed to want to be as far away as possible, she knew something big was coming.

However, as they descended, nothing happened. When they passed the second floor, Chrome turned back to the door so that she could be the first person out when they reached the ground floor.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Tsuna looked at Longchamp's body and promptly jumped Chrome, dragging her to the floor.

"GUUUPPRAHAHAHHHH!" Shouted, screamed, and yawned Longchamp all at the same time. As he stood up and swung his arms up to stretch them, he let go of the beer bottle, and it sailed right through where Chrome's head had been a few moments ago.

"GUYS! SUP, HOMIES!" yelled Longchamp, seeing Dino and Tsuna. He took a bite out of the tomato as he looked at Chrome. "Ah! And who am I to forget the Vongola's b-e-a-Utiful escort?" Longchamp bowed, holding out the hand that had previously held the beer bottle for Chrome, offering to help her up.

Tsuna beat him to it. He jumped up, bending back over and wrapping his arms around her waist, helping her to her feet as she stared at Longchamp's sudden transformation. After making sure she was alright, Tsuna looked at Longchamp, both angry and dazed.

"One." Tsuna began his list. "Watch where you're throwing those bottles. You almost hit us."

"Sorry, Sawada-chaaaan." Longchamp pleaded, gaining the saddest look in his eyes you could imagine. Tsuna ignored it, used to his antics.

"Two. Chrome is not an escort, she's a bodyguard." Tsuna continued.

"Really?" asked Longchamp, genuinely shocked. "Cause from the way she dresses, and some of the pictures I've seen of yo-"

"Can we forget about the pictures?" asked Tsuna, exasperated. Really, did these people have no social lives? Couldn't they concentrate on something besides him?

"Three." Tsuna didn't wait to hear the reply coming from Longchamp's mouth. "Why were you passed out in the elevator?"

Longchamp froze. Paused. Looked down and to the right, putting a finger on his chin as he thought. Took a bite of his tomato.

"Can't remember." He eventually shrugged.

Tsuna's shoulders sagged. Dino facepalmed.

"Well then-" Dino suddenly stopped, looking upward towards where the setting sun would be.

"Crap, Tsuna. We have to go."

Tsuna nodded. "I'm sure I'll find out why shortly."

Dino nodded, beginning to stride forward purposefully.

"Where ya going, Dino-chan?" asked Longchamp, still in the elevator.

Dino turned his head to throw a reply over his shoulder...

...and slammed his temple into the shutting elevator door.

"Aaah." Tsuna had an epiphany. "Romario must have gotten a kilometer away. Whoops."

"Ah well. That's what you two get for taking so long." Longchamp laughed the whole thing off, opening the elevator doors with a button and walking back out.

"So it's today?" asked Tsuna.

Longchamp turned, giving Chrome and Tsuna a view of his profile. He nodded, taking another bite of his tomato. His face had an expression that screamed _yup, yup, it's today, it's today, thought I'd tell you yup it's today._

"We were getting bored." Said Longchamp, finishing his tomato and walking out of the hospital.

"What's today, Boss?" With Longchamp gone, and Dino out cold, Chrome felt she could speak again.

"Nothing important." Replied Tsuna, waving his hand slightly, dismissing the question. He walked over to a nurse, who had been speed walking to them after seeing Dino on the floor.

"Hello miss." Tsuna said, smiling as the nurse opened her mouth. "May we please borrow a stretcher? My friend here has fainted, and we really need to get going."

"Wha..." The nurse trailed off. She was going to tell Tsuna off for a multitude of things, like holding up the elevator and knocking this man out. But she just couldn't understand why he would come right out and ask for hospital property. He appeared to be completely serious.

"No...you may not bor-" she tried to say, but was interrupted.

"But you see, my friend here _really_ needs one. He has type 4 insophreniasm. It causes him to at random times violently change direction. We can't have him walking around on crowded streets when he's like this, without his medication, now can we?" Tsuna smiled sweetly.

"And don't worry about your job or anything. In fact, I think I'm a drinking buddy of your boss. So if you could just get me a stretcher, we may all be on our way." Tsuna finished, giving a slight huff of pride.

The nurse nodded. She'd never heard of inso...whatever, but that smile couldn't belong to anyone bad, could it? Of course he would return the stretcher whenever he was done with it.

A minute later, the nurse came back, happily pushing along the requested stretcher. Tsuna thanked her, and she practically skipped off.

Chrome stared at him the whole time, ignoring the exchange and waiting for him to come closer.

"I thought we agreed this morning you wouldn't keep me in the dark Boss." she said as Tsuna loaded the still unconscious Dino onto the stretcher.

"We did." Tsuna conceded. "But this isn't the best place to talk to you about it."

"Where is?" Chrome asked.

"The same place I've told you everything until now." Tsuna answered.

Chrome nodded. It wasn't a _I'm not telling._ It was a _I'm not telling...yet._

"Tonight?" she asked.

Tsuna, after strapping down Dino for the looks, looked at Chrome. "One condition."

Warily, Chrome nodded.

"Create an illusion of me, and don't follow me when I leave the hospital."

Chrome didn't even think about it. "No."

"Chrome-"

"No, Boss. I'm not leaving you alone while a bunch of self righteous hitmen stalk you."

"Chrome, it's customary. The others wont meet with me if I bring anyone along."

Chrome narrowed her eye ever so slightly. "I can disguise myself."

"Not from these guys." stated Tsuna.

"Do the words 'World Number 1' mean anything to you?" asked Chrome.

"It would be immoral." Tsuna fell back onto his puppy dog look.

Chrome resisted the urge to throw her hands into the air.

She sighed. "Fine."

Tsuna smiled. "Thanks Chrome. I promise, I'll recount the whole days experience when I get back to the hotel." And with that he began pushing Dino out of the hospital.

* * *

Tsuna watched as Chrome and a mist illusion of himself got into an armored car, which began driving back to the Dream Sky. Smiling, Tsuna turned and started pushing Dino, who was now conscious- but still strapped down- to a local bar.

The 'bar' looked exactly like most of the apartments in the downtown part of the city, with dirty, cream colored walls; slanted roof covered with dull red shingles; and the large open squares cut into the walls the only thing serving as windows. The place was crowded, people hustling and bustling about, jostling each other as they moved from the bar to the juke box to the tables, calling on waiters and waitresses to get their orders. Not a very secure place for some of the less popular mafia bosses to meet.

Which is exactly why they chose this praticular bar. It was a place to get decent food, have a nice talk that was masked by the general hub of activity, and was a slap in the face to anyone who might want to cause them harm. It was a challenge of sorts.

Dino had finally convinced Tsuna to let him out of the stretcher when they reached the entrance. This was done on the condition that Dino take baby steps, and always be looking at his feet, as Tsuna would be able to guide them to the booth in the back corner.

When they reached the same booth they had used for the past five years, the rest of the seats had already been taken up. Of the six spaces, the only seats open were the two at the ends of the L shape. The other seats were taken by Enma; Longchamp; a small girl with black hair, a large white mushroom headdress with matching cloak, and an orange pacifier around her neck; and a tall russian female, clad in short shorts and a small tank top, a skull mask hiding her features.

"Enma, Longchamp, Uni, Kira. I'm sorry for being late. Dino ran into a bit of trouble." Greeted Tsuna as he sat down.

"Literally." Added Dino as he sat down as well.

Everyone nodded, Longchamp holding back laughs.

"So we've heard." said Enma.

Uni smiled. "It's okay, I'm sure one day you'll be fine without your subordinates." she reassured Dino. He didn't look convinced.

Kira cleared her throat. "While normally I'd join in the social banter, we have bigger problems, no?" she looked at Tsuna, her Japanese heavily accented, but surprisingly eloquent.

Tsuna nodded. "Down to business."

* * *

He strode into the Dream Sky's lobby, looking around before nodding to Chrome, who was leaning by the elevators.

Tsuna walked over, smiling at her. "Everything go okay?"

Chrome nodded. "All according to plan."

Tsuna's shoulders relaxed. "That's good to hear. No attacks?"

Chrome shook her head.

Tsuna's smile faltered a bit. "I suppose you want to know why I asked for some space?"

Chrome shrugged. "I already know."

Tsuna raised an eyeborw. "How-"

His eyes widened, and he spun just in time to have the illusion fade and find Chrome stnading behind him.

"You followed me." It was a statement.

Chrome simply stared at him in response.

"I asked you not to."

Chrome blinked. "At least this way I was able to watch over the six of you."

Tsuna pinched the bridge of his nose. "You do realize you now know classified information that the other families don't want you knowing?"

Chrome nodded. "It's not like I'm going to tell anyone."

Tsuna looked at her, skeptical.

"I don't tell Mukuro-sama EVERYTHING, Boss." Chrome felt slightly exasperated.

"You don't?" That surprised Tsuna. He had assumed she told him everything, and what she didn't he found out anyway.

"Why do you think he didn't posses me when we were...making love?" Chrome blushed slightly. It was nothing compared to Tsuna's, and _her_ tongue wasn't glued to the roof of her mouth. I mean, no matter how watered down they made it, there were certain topics that someone like Tsuna would always feel uncomfortable talking about.

"Um...because he isn't a homosexual...right?" Tsuna asked uncertain.

The mental image Tsuna was painting was _not _one Chrome wanted. "N-no...it's because he didn't know...let's face it Boss, he'd never pass up such an opportunity to posses you. You'd be defenseless."

Tsuna nodded furiously, subconsciously trying to chase away the very same mental images. "Yeah...I'd probably faint if you suddenly grew a foot and a half, and turned into a guy. I'm fine with you having many weird quirks Chrome...but I have to draw a line somewhere." he joked.

Chrome giggled. "I wasn't planning on it Boss. But thanks for the warning."

Tsuna grinned for a bit, before the edges of his lips turned back down again. "So you know."

"Know what Boss?" Chrome asked, prepared for another joke or sarcastic comment at Mukuro's expense.

"That we have no information, no leads, no clues, no warning signs, no idea what we're up against, no plan to protect ourselves, and no-"

"-need to worry because the six strongest Mafia bosses are all working to protect each other?" Chrome finished. She gave Tsuna a look that said _well?_

Tsuna sighed. "I can't be that optimistic, but yes. For now, we're relatively safe."

He gave a half smile. "Besides, it's not like they can get really close to us. We'll notice if they try that."

"Will you?" a deep male voice resounded from behind him.

Tsuna spun, eyes wide, flames ignited, already planning on releasing the Ver. X Sky ring to it's full power. But no one was there. The lobby was empty.

The lobby was never empty.

Tsuna and Chrome looked around for anything, any signs of life, or assassins hidden in the walls, or employees hiding behind potted plants, getting ready to jump out and yell "BOO!".

But there was no one.

Tsuna stopped looking around, instead turning to face the direction the voice had come from. A white rectangle on the floor caught his attention. Taking a few steps forward, he bent to pick it up. His dying will flame promptly extinguished itself, his gloves going back to their cloth form, His eyes widening.

"Boss, what is it?" Chrome asked.

He looked up, and she saw that same impossible look in his eyes. "Remember what I said earlier, about us knowing when they got close?" he asked unsteadily.

Chrome nodded.

"Forget I said anything." he smiled, nervously chuckling at some cosmic joke.

Turning the rectangle over, Chrome looked at a picture that made her blood run cold.

It was a picture of the two of them standing in the threshold of an elevator, Dino slumped against the wall he'd just banged his head into, Longchamp with his back to the camera.

It bothered Chrome that they'd gotten a picture of the four of them in such an unaware position. It bothered her more that they'd been able to deliver the picture in such a fasion.

But what was worse was how _close_ the picture had been taken to them.

Chrome mentally reviewed all the landmarks in the hallway, the distances between them, and the size of each person in the photograph. She did calculations over. And over. And over.

"This can't be right." she muttered.

"It isn't." Tsuna said.

The cameraman had been a mere three feet behind Longchamp at the time the picture had been taken.

**Yup, yet more puzzle pieces fall into their hands. And don't worry, I'm not going with the overused religious extremism as the motivation for the bad guys. Don't wanna turn anyone off with it, so just a warning; ulterior motives abound.**

**And, while I'm on the subject of the KHR anime (See Dark Raku response), has anyone seen 203? If they have, please, I'm confused about something. In the anime, TYL!Lambo is about a head taller then TYE!Tsuna. In the short snippet we see with all the TYL! characters lined up to show off their awesomeness, Chrome, Kyoko, and Haru are all a head shorter then TYL!Lambo. Does this mean that over a ten year period, the girls don't grow **_**at all?**_

**Short rant notwithstanding, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, thank you for reading.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Plot Thickens

**A shorter chapter today. Hope you like it anyway.**

**DeadFlash27: I'm glad you like it. And can I assume you're the anonymous review?**

**TenchiSaWaDa: That's the plan.**

**Izanagi No Ookami: I'm not planning on publishing any other stories till I've completed this one, to give me time to work on them and hash out the details. I'll put up a poll when I finish this story so you guys can decide what you want next. And I think it's the first option, plus the TYE! girls are slightly shorter anyway. It just bugged me.**

**On with the story, and sorry for the late update. Please review.**

A beeping reverberated throughout the hall. Groaning, Squalo slowly stood up from the chair he had been sitting in. He turned around and looked at the three sleeping bags set head first against the wall, their feet touching the back of his chair.

"Voooi, Chrome, it's your turn." he muttered, going to the sleeping bag on his left and unzipping it, shaking the guardian awake.

Chrome's eye snapped open as she heard the zipper be tugged open. Looking up, she rolled onto her back and stared at Squalo for a moment.

"Nothing." He answered her unasked question as he crawled into the middle sleeping bag.

Chrome sat up, stretched, and slipped out of the bag, quietly zipping it up as Squalo fell back asleep, taking her place at the chair. She stared down the hallway, paying resolute attention as she cycled through what had brought them to this point.

As soon as they had recovered from the shock of the photo, Chrome had rushed Tsuna up to his room, where she triple checked everything to make sure there was no way anyone could get in accept through the front door. Then, still watching Tsuna to make sure that he was fine, Chrome whipped out her phone, called Squalo and Basil, and related all that had happened in the lobby. The three of them set up a watch on Tsuna's room.

Basil took the first third since, as the outside advisor, he needed to be the most awake for the meeting. Squalo took the middle third, since he had the best stamina of the three of them and could take being woken up in the middle of the night, having the amount of sleep he got reduced and then cut in half. Chrome took the last third, since she required the least sleep of the three of them. She probably would have been awake by that point anyway.

Chrome had been having a hard time sleeping for the first two shifts. She had been plagued by dreams of Tsuna being killed in the same way that the Ninth had been, the only differences being who got hit with what. Squalo would be killed trying to attack the assassins, Basil would go into a coma trying to protect the two of them, and her illusions would somehow be defeated, resulting in Tsuna's death. And she would be left alone, the least wounded, to watch the man she loved die. Not exactly the easiest thing to sleep through.

So now Chrome sat in the foldable chair, staring down the hallway as she set up her phone to continuously scan for any flames. It was a nice little app that Spanner had invented, ironically enough, for sensing and seeing through illusions. She always smiled inwardly when she thought about that, especially since she used it the most.

She kept thinking about that nice app Spanner invented, and all the cool stuff the tenth generation engineers could come up with, especially with a little mathematical help from Gokudera and some inspiration from Tsuna.

Chrome tried to think of as many other things as she could to distract herself from the soft, repetitive _tmp, tmp, tmp_ that could be heard coming from Tsuna's room.

"So Tsuna-dono is still awake."

Basil sat down next to the chair Chrome was in, rubbing his eyes.

"I am terribly sorry," he apologized, " But I could not sleep."

Chrome nodded, not taking her eyes off the hallway.

Basil looked up at her. "Dost thou wish me to take over?" he asked.

Chrome shook her head. "Go back to sleep." she said.

"Alas, I cannot." he replied. "I am too worried about Tsuna-dono."

"We need you alert for the meeting." Chrome reminded him.

"Yes," Basil conceded, "But we also need Tsuna-dono awake for it. And since he was making the same noises when I was on duty, I highly doubt he has rested at all."

Chrome glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Go." Basil urged. "Go, comfort him, get him to rest a bit. I'll take over here."

Chrome nodded. "Thank you."

Chrome walked over to Tsuna's door, which was about ten feet in front of the chair, and unlocked it with the spare key. She opened the door, quickly walking in and shutting it behind her. Looking up, she instantly caught sight of Tsuna, pacing back and forth around his bed.

He looked up when she entered. His eyes were bloodshot, the bags under them evident. He still hadn't changed out of the red suit he'd been wearing to the meeting yesterday. All around the room, lying on every flat surface, there was a piece of paper with writing on it. Tsuna held one such paper in his hands, attached to a clipboard and in the process of being covered in words.

"What're you doing Boss?" Chrome asked.

"Oh...um, I'm coming up with different ideas and plans we could use to defend ourselves." Tsuna looked around the room. "I can't seem to come up with a good one though."

As he began pacing and writing again, Chrome picked up a few of the papers and looked at them. One of them was a perfect military strategy that armies would sacrifice cities worth of people for...but couldn't be pulled off with the amount of people they had. Another was an idea involving Chrome using multiple illusions to distract their enemies from the real locations of the representatives...but required her to be in two places at once. The third paper she picked up described in detail the use of a pack of german Shepard dogs as thieves who would steal the enemies ammo. And it pretty much went down hill from their.

Chrome even found one with a crude drawing of a giant, sci-fi like laser, vaporizing a few stick people with wings and stick guns.

"Boss, you're losing it." said Chrome.

Tsuna looked over at Chrome and watched her go through multiple papers. "Rejects." He said, motioning to the pile around her.

"What are you going to do at the meeting?" Chrome tried again.

Tsuna shrugged. "Not sure I'll go."

Chrome set down the papers. "You have to Boss. If you aren't there, whose going to oppose all the greedy, militate actions that everyone seems to want to implement?"

Tsuna shrugged again. "Enma can handle my absence for one day."

"And what about how your absence would reflect on the Vongola?"

"I care more about our lives then the Vongola's reputation."

"Okay." Chrome let that one go. "But think about it Boss. If you don't show up, these guys will be able to herd you into doing whatever they want you to do. They'll scare you off from every meeting."

Tsuna set the clipboard down, opting instead to lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. "It gives me an excuse to take a break."

Chrome sighed. "Very well."

Tsuna looked at her, eyebrow raised. "That's it?"

Chrome nodded. "I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to..."

Tsuna smiled "Than-"

"...so I'll go in your stead."

Tsuna froze. "What?"

"I'll use a mist illusion and pretend to be you." Chrome elaborated.

Tsuna was on his feet instantly. "No."

"Someone has to go Boss. You aren't going to be any safer hiding here then you would be out there."

Tsuna walked toward Chrome, placing his hands on her shoulders. He took a deep breath. "You think I'm doing this to keep _myself_ safe?"

Chrome blinked. "Yeah?"

Tsuna shook his head. "As long as I stay in here, the three of you are going to be on the other side of that door, watching the only entrance point. You're practically untouchable."

Chrome nodded. "Practically."

Tsuna sighed. "Please don't go." He whispered, that look that she hated so much to the point of denial in his eyes.

"Boss." Chrome said, a bit more sharply then she intended. "Thank you for trying to protect me. But I'm the bodyguard." She reached out her hand, cupping the side of his face. "Get some sleep, please?" she asked.

Tsuna nodded, defeatedly. Chrome smiled and tried to retract her hand. Tsuna grabbed her hand as it left his face, though, pulling Chrome close and hugging her before leading her to the bed. They lay down, snuggled close as they tried to chase away the others fears.

* * *

He'd long ago given up keeping his eyes opened. Everything he saw hurt to look at, and it was all blurry anyway. Instead, Tsuna just put his hand over his eyes like a visor, looking down and scribbling something on the page in front of him to make everyone think he was doing something productive as he struggled to stay awake.

Tsuna had tried to sleep, really. But his memories from the Ninth's assassination played through his head every time he drifted off to sleep. The last time he'd fallen asleep, the same memories had played through his mind, only instead of the Ninth talking to him it was Chrome, and she was accusing him of her death, of not warning her, preparing her.

She wasn't completely wrong either. He had been the one to ask her to come, albeit indirectly. He'd been the one to withhold all of the important details till she practically demanded them. He was the one who was constantly putting her in danger by staying close to her.

If they killed her, it would be his fault.

Tsuna began to make random scribbles as he tried to force his eyes open again. As soon as he cracked them open, pain shot into his head, and his eyes slipped closed. He could hear one of the bosses summarizing the levels of prostitution in the New England section of the United States. He'd never been big on prostitution, mostly because of the loathing he felt towards the way he acted when drunk, so it made sense that he wouldn't exactly be paying attention. But was it getting quieter in the room? No, no, he was just losing focus. But these loops he were drawing were really hypnotic...

Tsuna put down his pen. He needed to look at something else. sliding his eyes to the left, he looked at Chrome. She was currently using an illusion to make everyone think that she was sitting straight up, paying attention to what was going on. Some of their allies, Tsuna included, could see through this. In reality, Chrome had her arms crossed in front of her on the desk, her head resting on top of it. She was facing Tsuna, sides slowly expanding then contracting, hair shrouding her eye.

Tsuna lowered his head to her level, lightly brushing her hair out of the way. Her eye was closed. _So she is sleeping_ thought Tsuna. He rested his head against the desk, smiling, his eyes once again sliding shut, sounds around him dimming.

He forced his eyes to, once again, open. One at a time. Slowly. Then, he turned his head to face the other mafia bosses, who were most likely all looking at him. Instead, he faced a wall of black.

Looking up, Tsuna made eye contact with a man...probably. The person stood at about six and a half feet, covered in combat gear, making their general shape formless. In their gloved, right hand they carried a desert eagle, their left hand rested on their belt next to their frag grenades, and their face was hidden by a black ski mask. On the ski mask was the image of a red face, a silver mustache surrounding the fangs that were over where the mouth should have been, wrinkles in the cheeks leaking blood, lines of fire going over the eyes to act as eyebrows, a tattoo of a sideways roman numeral one running across the forehead.

It was a mask identical to the one that Tsuna found in that desk drawer.

Tsuna jumped back, shocked out of his chair, grabbing Chrome's as he fell, trying to pull her out of the way.

He heard her yelp as they both crashed to the floor, Tsuna's chair sliding a bit before going into the wall behind him. Tsuna looked back up as he was in the middle of going into dying will mode only to find the assassin gone.

Tsuna shot up, looking around. Nope. No assassin in the corner. No doors blown open. Just a room of mafia bosses staring at Tsuna and Chrome, who was now standing up, rubbing her shoulder.

Tsuna blinked a bit before turning and grabbing his chair, putting both his and Chrome's back in their proper position. "Sorry everyone." He apologized.

"Rough night?" someone asked.

Tsuna raised his eyebrows in assent. "Oh yeah." He whispered. Too late, he realized what everyone meant.

The room erupted in laughter. Tsuna sat down, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. Chrome sat in her chair as well, back straight, hands in her lap, her face looking at a very interesting knot in the table, conveniently hiding the blush spreading across her face.

As the laughs...slowly...began to die down, Dino smiled at Tsuna. "Wow...little bro, after all...that talk of being..._professional..._" he laughed between gasps. Next to him, Romario rested his chin in his hand, looking upwards with a dreamy smile on his face. "Ah, young love." he said absentmindedly.

Tsuna looked up at this. He cast his eyes around the room. "Alright, people. Now that you have that out of your systems, I'd like to remind you all that we are here to do work, not-"

"Wai, wai, wait. Hold up." interrupted Longchamp, raising his hand as if to stop Tsuna from speaking. "We're here to _work?_"

Tsuna nodded wearily.

Longchamp looked worried. "Then what the hell am I doing here?"

"I ask myself the same thing every time we come here." said Kira, rubbing her temples, eyes closing in boredom behind her mask.

Tsuna, ignoring Longchamp, continued. "As I was saying, now that you're all done wasting time, can we please get something done?"

"That's what she said." Said Squalo, electing another chorus of laughs from around the room.

* * *

"Is that everything?" Tsuna asked, trying to wrap up the meeting. Most everyone nodded, shuffling papers and getting ready to leave.

"Just a moment." said a voice from the right of the room, near the middle of the table. All eyes turned to a short, spanish man. His black hair was missing from the top of his head, instead wrapping around his head, starting above each ear and wrapping around to the back. He had an unpleasant expression on his face, like he had just bitten his own tongue and was holding back the urge to yell. His brown, beady eyes bored into Tsuna as he pulled a paper from his teal suit.

Setting the paper down on the table in front of him, he looked around the room. "How many of you know about a group of rogue hitmen known as the _demonio guerriro_?"

All eyes were on him instantly, most in confusion. The Vongola and their allies reacted differently, however; their eyes were filled with suspicion.

"They were the group responsible with the brutal killing of Vongola Nono." the spanish man clarified. This brought understanding to everyone in the room. Almost all of them had been present for the shooting, and those who hadn't would probably be informed after this, vow of silence be damned.

"My family found a very interesting document in one of their bases that we discovered in Madrid." This caught Tsuna's attention and reaffirmed his suspicions. If Hibari Kyoya couldn't even find anything beyond a name and profile, there was no way these guys could find and take over a base.

The spanish man picked the paper back up, holding it up and parading it around the room slowly. With each person that looked at it, the temperature of the room dropped, and glances were sent down to the Vongola section. When the spanish man finally arrived at their section of the table, Basil gasped, Chrome narrowed her eyes, and Squalo shot out of his chair, yelling "VOOOOOIIII! What the hell is this!"

"My words exactly." said the spanish man monotonously. "Why is it, Vongola Decimo, that this contract to kill the Ninth and his bodyguard, for three hundred thousand united states dollars, is signed by you?"

Tsuna looked at the paper calmly before slowly standing, looking the other man in the eye.

"Do you wish to mock me?" he asked the shorter man quietly.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I'm asking if you think you're funny." Tsuna stated.

"I most certainly don't think this is funny, Decimo." the man replied in a scolding tone.

"Then why are you parading around an obviously faked document?" asked Tsuna, a bit of a growl slipping into his voice.

The man took a step back. "You dare to cover your betrayal with such childish lies?" he hissed.

"Lies?" asked Tsuna cooly.

"Yes, lies! We have your signature here-"

"And aren't you forgetting that when you romanize my name, it begins with a _T, not an S?_" Tsuna glowered at the man.

The spanish man looked at Tsuna for a moment, before looking down at the document in his hand. His eyes darted across the signature a few times before he seemed to lose the ability to hold his jaw shut, and it flopped open. He slowly rolled his eyes back to Tsuna.

Tsuna vaulted over the desk, quickly closing the distance between him and the other boss, ignoring the various cries and threats from the other boss's bodyguard. "Where did you get this?" Tsuna asked threateningly. "Why are you trying to test my awareness with such a blatant lie? What are you planning to do now?"

The spanish man gaped like a goldfish a few times before stuttering out. "I-i was p-p-paid-d some money-"

_p-tnk._

That was the only noise that the bullet made as it went through the door and into the back of the head of the spanish man. He fell to the ground, a large portion of his head missing. Everyone looked up in time to see the assassin turn and begin running down the hall. In seconds, Aoba and Squalo were out the door.

Tsuna stepped forward, trying to follow them, but felt a hand in his. He looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with Chrome, who shook her head. Tsuna let his shoulders sag ever so slightly in understanding.

* * *

They had returned to the hotel an hour ago, Squalo still out tracking that assassin, the other three mulling around in Tsuna's room, trying to find something to do. Basil had excused himself fifteen minutes ago, saying he was going to go search the penthouse for any signs of forced entry or bugs. So, with nothing else to do, and no desire to leave the room, Tsuna and Chrome did what most people would expect a mid twenties couple, alone, in a life or death struggle to do.

"Yes..." Chrome moaned, "That feels good, Boss."

"You like it?" Tsuna asked, his voice velvety smooth, causing Chrome's blush to deepen a shade of red.

"Yeah." Chrome mumbled, her voice a octave higher then normal.

"You want me to keep going?" Tsuna asked, his lips almost against her ear.

"Yeah!" Chrome replied in the same voice.

Tsuna smirked as he looked at Chrome, cheek against the pillow underneath her, hair pulled out of the way so Tsuna could look at her whole face, which was tinged a light pink, the area under her eyes darker. Her eye was closed in pleasure as she breathed out through her mouth noisily, the epitome of pleasure.

He pushed himself up from his previous position, going from lying on her back to straddling her. Tsuna continued what he was doing earlier, his smirk still in place as he listened to Chrome, feeling her slightly squirm underneath him. But he wasn't letting her move without his permission, so he applied a bit more pressure with his hips, and felt her stop moving. This sudden lack of freedom only served to make her more restless, and he could see her hands holding the pillow tighten as her voice rose.

Deciding to push her, Tsuna switched positions, moving his hips away from hers as he disentangled their legs, lowering himself onto the bed next to her, their bodies flush, as he stared into her now open eye. Smiling mischievously, he slowly brushed his hand against her cheek, glove still on. She seemed to prefer the feeling of them over his normal skin.

After caressing her cheek a bit more, he slid his hand down, to her jaw, following her jugular down her neck, to her collar, to her chest...her kept going down and down. Chrome didn't think he'd stop until he had followed her leg all the way down to the toes. She was wrong.

Her eye widened when she felt where his hand stopped before it slowly closed shut, eye rolling into the back of her head. She let a low moan escape her lips before somehow pressing herself against Tsuna _more_, wrapping her legs around him. She panted into the hollow of his neck as he smiled. "To think I'd get this kind of a reaction out of you with only one finger." he said, a glint in his eyes. "I wonder what would happen if..." his eyes filled with mirth as Chrome's snapped open again, eye shooting up to meet his. "...I added a second finger..." he continued, extending another to join the first, "...Or a third." he extend a third, moving all three in a purposeful circle as Chrome gasped.

"Yes Boss, yes, harder!" she begged.

"Now, now Chrome." Tsuna jokingly chided.

Chrome shook her head. "Pleeeease!" she whined.

Tsuna rolled his eyes as he manipulated Chrome like putty. "Very well." He said huskily, applying more pressure and moving faster. Chrome smiled as her breathing accelerated.

"Uh-huh, that feels really good." Chrome giggled, leaning up and kissing him passionately. Tsuna's fingers slowed as he immersed himself in the kiss. Chrome felt this instantly, breaking off and pouting. "Boss..." she trailed off.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Do you know how hard it is to give a decent massage when you're moaning and kissing me like that?"

Chrome looked down at her fully clothed body, her hip to be precise, where Tsuna's fingers gently rested. Somehow, he was able to make her whole lower body relax by massaging a point just behind her hip bone. She looked back up at him, her eyes pleading.

"No." he said. "I'm done." leaning up, he brushed his hand across his suit a few times to ease out the wrinkles before getting off the bed. He looked back down at Chrome, who was staring at him with longing. "Wait." She said, leaning up to a sitting position, legs underneath her. "Wait, Boss, why?" she asked.

Tsuna shrugged. "I'm just not in the mood. Sorry."

Chrome pouted again. "Yeah right."

Tsuna smiled. "I've never been able to fool you."

Chrome got off the bed. "Sorry about the way I was acting. It's hard to control what comes out of my mouth when you're doing things like that though."

Tsuna rose an eyebrow. "I have no problem with that. I just think now would be a good time to stop." He started walking to the door.

"Why?" Chrome asked again.

Tsuna opened the door in reply.

Basil stood there, red faced, looking down. "A-ah." He stammered when Tsuna opened the door. "I am deeply-" his eyes widened as he said it "uh, I apologize for...interrupting. A call came in for Tsuna-dono to go to the front desk."

Tsuna nodded. "Thanks for the heads up Basil."

Basil gave a half smile before quickly running away.

Chrome stared after him quizzically. "I wonder what he thought we were doing?"

* * *

Tsuna approached the front desk quickly, Chrome at his side. Cheryl looked up as they approached. "Ah, thank goodness you're finally here." Cheryl said. She turned around and led them both through an employees only door behind the front desk.

Inside, their eyes widened as they saw who was already in the room. "Meni?" Chrome asked.

The little girl looked up. Her hair was up in a pineapple, but it was messy. The eyepatch Chrome had made for her was around her neck, the patch dangling in front of her faded green sundress. Her face had tear streaks going down it. As soon as she saw Chrome, she went running over and hugged her leg.

Chrome bent down and picked Meni up, bringing their faces up to the same level. "What's wrong?" she asked the little girl. Meni looked back at Cheryl, then at Tsuna, before burying her head in the nape of Chrome's neck.

"When I found her in the front lobby, she was crying. She said her parents had been attacked by men with monster faces." Cheryl answered for the girl.

Tsuna closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "Take me to her house." Tsuna said to Chrome.

Chrome nodded. Meni's grasp around her neck tightened as they left the hotel.

* * *

They were in front of one of the older apartment complexes, and it showed. The wood was rotting, shingles were missing or broken, and the walls were covered in graffiti. The main door was broken, like it'd been blown open.

Tsuna quickly walked inside, silently activating his dying will, keeping the ver. X sky ring sealed, as to not attract a lot of attention. Chrome followed behind, casting her eyes to the sides and behind them, monitering their surroundings. Meni was still in her arms, lightly shaking.

They went up a flight of stairs, following a general path of destruction. At the top, they entered a narrow, dimly lit hallway. Tsuna instantly picked out a destroyed door at the end of the hallway, on his right. He nodded towards it, and Chrome tapped his glove in response. They continued on down the hallway.

When they got to the second to last doorway before the end, the door to Chrome's left exploded outward, a large figure jumping out and swinging their sword right through her head.

The mist illusion dissapated as Tsuna slammed the man against the wall, Chrome with an illusionary trident pointing at their assailents throat.

"VOOOOOII! What're you scum doing!"

"Squalo." said Tsuna, releasing the assassin from his grip.

Squalo rubbed his neck slightly, glaring at Tsuna. "Yeah, me."

"Where's the assassin you were dealing with?" Tsuna asked.

"Finished him off a few minutes ago." He pointed to the busted door. "The guy ran in there, whipping out an uzi. When I got in there, he and some woman were hunkered down behind the kitchen table. They threw a grenade at me, resulting in the door blowing up. I used the explosion as cover, darted in, and finished them both off with one hit."

Tsuna nodded, an uneasy feeling rising in his stomach.

"You sure that was the assassin you killed?" asked Chrome.

Squalo nodded. "Vooi. I know how to follow my targets."

Chrome sighed. She looked at Tsuna.

"That's Menis' apartment." he said. She nodded.

Tsuna felt his jaw clench. "Come with me, Squalo."

He walked towards the blown up door, entering the apartment as Squalo caught up. Tsuna walked behind the overturned kitchen table that was in the middle of the overstuffed living room, inspecting the bodies. Ignoring the bit of bile in his throat, Tsuna identified the heads of the deceased.

"Squalo, you know that little girl in Chrome's arms?" Tsuna asked.

Squalo nodded.

"These are her parents."

Squalo froze, before paling slightly. "Voooiii. That's too bad."

Tsuna nodded.

"I didn't know." Squalo muttered.

Tsuna patted his shoulder. "Why did you attack us when we were coming this way?"

Squalo cleared his throat. "After killing these two, I searched the place a bit. I found some plans, detailing a meeting that was going to take place here. I decided to ambush whoever would be coming, so I hid out in an empty apartment and wait. You guys showed up at the time that the group was supposed to, so I thought you guys were more of those assassins."

Squalo looked out into the hallway. "Vooooii. We better get moving. Those other guys could show up any second-"

"There are no other guys." said Tsuna. "We've been set up. And I think I know by who." he growled quietly as he finished, walking back out into the hallway.

He approched the two girls, Chrome trying to comfort a now awake Meni.

"They're dead." Sobbed the little girl. "A-and it's all my f-f-fault."

"It isn't your fault." Softly cooed Chrome.

The little girl shook her head. "Th-they said th-a-at I had to stop being a k-kid and-d grow-w...up." Meni gasped for air.

Chrome rubbed her back. "I'm sure your parents didn't mean it." she whispered.

Meni shook her head. 'They didn't s-say it."

Chrome looked at her, confused. "Then who did?"

"The same people that set us up." Tsuna said. Chrome transferred her gaze to him.

"What now?" she asked as Squalo came up behind Tsuna.

"I think it's time we pay Cheryl a visit." Tsuna said as he walked back to the stairwell.

**Did you really think I would put in such an explicit lemon? And I think I should be able to wrap this up in the next 4-5 chapters.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked it, thank you for reviewing.**


	9. Chapter 9: The Real Vongola

**AAAAAAAAH! I'm so late! It's been close to what, a month? since I updated. I'm sorry for the few of you who are sticking with this story. A lot of things have happened, and it's been a bit of a hassle getting everything set up. I don't like it when authors rant about their personal lives, so I wont say any more on the subject. **

**Anyway, there's a really important poll on my profile concerning my next work that you NEED to vote on right as soon as you finish this chapter and finish reviewing (Or just as soon as you finish this chapter...or you know what, if you get sick of it and don't finish the chapter, swing over to my profile anyway and vote.) My reason for begging for votes? Well, one, I wanna know what you guys wanna see next, and two, it's currently a THREE. WAY. TIE. And I don't know what to start prepping. So, yeah, vote.**

**DeadFlash27: Glad you liked it, and I hope your computer gets better soon.**

**TenchiSawada: Glad you thought it was funny, that was my favorite part writing. And that chapter...and this one...are a bit rushed, so I'm sorry about the lack of flow. This chapter there is a lot of time that I skip over because nothing big happens, so it may seem choppy. Just a warning.**

**Ai Angel: Ah, glad you liked the crossover. I've always enjoyed throwing them, especially Urahara, into random cameo spots. He seems like the kind of guy who would be everywhere at once.**

**HappyChappy: Glad you liked it, good to know my romance skills are on par. Here's your update!**

**Uninspired Author: This review...pretty much puts into words what I wanted to get out of this fic. As far as spelling and grammar, this chapter is probably going to bad with that, but I'm planning on re uploading it when I have more time to edit.**

**Hollo-Unlimited: Well, here is your next installment. Hope it lives up to expectations.**

**Mugen: First off, glad you liked Their Kisses, that was a bittersweet one to write and but I'm proud of it. Anyway, for as why it only has 10 reviews, yes, I think it's because it's a 2796. I don't know if people necessarily **_**hate**_** the pairing...it's just that they support Chrome with people like Hibari and Mukuro more. Tsuna seems to have a pretty balanced share with all three girls on this site, but Chrome...not so much. Also, some people probably consider all the guardians working together OOC. But I like the way I portrayed them, and will probably continue to portray them like that. Anyway, glad you liked it at least, and thanks for the review. I hoped this helped.**

**Warning: Maybe choppy, poorly edited, and a climax to the story hides somewhere in the following 20 pages. I hope you enjoy it, and you'll both like and hate this chapter, because I think the story is good, but this isn't exactly my best work if you haven't noticed.**

**Read on, and please review.**

Basil closed the cell phone in his hand. Turning around, he looked at Squalo, Chrome, and Tsuna, their bodies portraying various signs of apprehension.

"She hasn't been heard from since Tsuna-dono and Chrome-dono spoke with her. It seems Cheryl-san has disappeared off the map."

Squalo swore as Chrome sighed and Tsuna closed his eyes. "I was afraid of that." The boss said.

"So what do we do now?" asked Basil.

"We find Cheryl." said Tsuna. "If she's really working for the _demonio guerriro_, then I doubt she would have fled the city. She'll be somewhere around here. And if we find her, we can locate the rest of them."

"Voooooi. We have no leads, Sawada. How are we supposed to find the bitch?" Squalo growled.

"We have one lead." Chrome said quietly, looking over her shoulder at Tsuna's bed. Meni was fast asleep, tears dried on her face as she slightly turned in bed.

They had regrouped in Tsuna's room after finding Meni's parents dead. The girl had explained that Cheryl had appeared at their apartment door, flanked by masked men with guns. Her dad had told her to go to her room, but she snuck back out and listened to the conversation.

Cheryl had offered Meni's father a lot of money in return for his help. He was to dress as one of them, and kill a man. When he denied, they threatened his family. When Meni's mother stood firm against them, they threatened to destroy the entire apartment complex, and take away everything the family had _but _their lives. Forced with the prospect of losing everything, or getting enough money to send Meni to a college in England or America, Meni's father grudgingly accepted.

After her father had left with the two guards, Cheryl got the drop on Meni's mother and knocked her out. She then found Meni and threatened to hurt her if she did anything. Leading her back to the hotel, Cheryl sat and waited.

That had been two days ago. It was now friday morning, and Tsuna was going on fifty hours without sleep.

"She probably wanted to be found out." said Tsuna, staring off into space and nodding slowly.

"What makes you say that?" asked Basil.

"The signature on the fake hit to kill the Ninth was the same signature I used when we first came here, and I checked into the rooms. Besides, they probably wanted Squalo to kill Meni's parents, to push me into connecting the dots."

Basil nodded, Chrome and Squalo also having their own little aha! moments as well.

"Which means we're still following their script." pointed out Chrome.

Tsuna nodded tiredly. "Yup. But, this also means that Cheryl will probably show herself when she feels comfortable. We'll just have to overpower her and the _demonio guerriro_'s crazy schemes then."

Squalo snorted. "Like we haven't done that before. We really need more original plans."

Tsuna ignored Squalo and continued on. "Well, we have to be at the final day of the meeting in...three hours." he said, looking over at the clock. "Everyone, try to get some sleep."

Squalo and Basil nodded, standing and exiting the room. Chrome stayed, staring at Tsuna as he walked over to his bed and looked at Meni as she fidgeted.

"Worried?" Chrome asked softly, coming to stand beside him.

Tsuna looked over at her. "I ruined her life." He motioned toward Meni. "I got their family involved in a conflict that had nothing to do with them."

Chrome held Tsuna's gaze for a moment before shaking her head. "They are a victim of these nuts crazy plans. They already had experience with this group, and since I saved Meni from them two years ago, this family had probably been on their hit list anyway."

Tsuna nodded reluctantly, looking back at Meni. "We need to do something for her."

"We will." reassured Chrome.

Tsuna lay down on the bed, pulling Meni close to him and closing his eyes.

"Still worried?" asked Chrome, walking around the bed and watching Tsuna's relaxed face. Then he opened his eyes and his face contorted into one of absolute pain and...that look. The one she had seen on his face for days now. The one she was now forced to accept was there, present within him.

Fear.

It broke Chrome's heart to see him like that.

"What can I do?" she asked softly, lying on the bed across from him, stretching an arm across Meni, resting it on his forearm.

Shutting his eyes again, he whispered "Make the nightmares go away."

Chrome paused for a moment, taken off guard by his request, then reached out a hand, massaging Tsuna's temple with her thumb. "Very well." she said, closing her eyes and entering their minds.

* * *

Every shadow was an assassin; every moving object was a bullet.

Tsuna couldn't concentrate on any one thing for too long. Every time he did, his mind started making up phantoms and putting them in the corner of his vision. He clenched his jaw and ignored the shadowy figure on top of the building to his left as they drove past. Normally that would have gotten him killed, but considering that it's the 34th figure he's seen like that, either his mind is playing tricks on him or the _demonio guerriro _enjoy taunting him.

_It could be either one._ Tsuna thought dejectedly as he popped another caffeine pill.

"It's time Tsuna-dono." Basil commented as they drove up to the hospital. Tsuna nodded, motioning for Basil to move.

Basil opened the door of their van, looking around before activating a very large rain flame, completely coating the vehicle in flame. Squalo put his own flame into the mix, and a large bubble was formed around the van.

Chrome created an illusion, making Tsuna invisible. Then she made herself look like Tsuna, finishing by creating a fake her.

Satisfied that everything was in order, she had her illusion crawl out of the van before following, invisible Tsuna right behind her.

The Vongola representatives all quickly walked into the hospital, glancing around as they crossed the parking lot for any sign of attackers. When they entered the hospital, they sent glares at anyone who would come within twenty feet of them. They marched down the hallways as fast as they could, going for the stairwells, because they just weren't going to risk being in a small metal box when their enemies could get all the way to the meeting room undetected.

They only slightly regretted their decision after arriving on the fourteenth floor.

Marching into the meeting room, Chrome dispelled her illusions as Squalo instantly raised his voice to get everyones attention. "VOOI! JACKASSES, PAY ATTENTION, WE GOT IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL OF YOU!"

Everyone was shocked into silence by the assassins sudden outburst, remaining quiet till Tsuna reached the other side of the room, pulling back Chrome's chair to let her sit down. Then everyone began raising their voices in indignation, targeting the Vongola with insults and curses.

Tsuna sat down in his chair and tried counting to ten. Losing patience at eight, he slammed his hand into the table, creating a significant dent.

"I..." he began, pausing for dramatic effect as he sent glares around the room. "...have been awake for over fifty hours. I've been awake for this long because the assassins that killed my predecessor have decided to mind fuck me and my friends this past week. They've stalked me, invaded my personal life, attacked the people around me, and killed civilians. From what we know, they really don't like me. In fact they want to kill me."

Tsuna slowly stood, his voice getting quieter as he rose to his full height. "Now, I've taken a week out of my schedule once every four months to come to this God forsaken room and listen to you fat lards _bitch_ about your problems. Your 'working girls' don't like to give you extra; your favorite type of beef can't be delivered in six hours; the cops have gotten sick of you just randomly murdering people. We'll I'm sorry that the people of the world have morals."

Tsuna drew in a deep breath. "You come to me with the stupidest of requests, expecting me to slave to your every whim because you field whores and pay off cops, but then won't give me the time of day. and I'm SICK OF IT! I have a pretty damn major problem right now, and you WILL help me fix it. You WILL listen to me and give me any useful information you may have. Then you WILL leave me and my allies alone to go deal with the first actual PROBLEM we've had since I started coming to these damn things!"

He cast his eyes around the room, settling them down on a young man near the back corner of the room as he took a deep breath in. Finished filling his lungs, the man pushed some greasy hair out of his eyes as his pencil thin suit showed off the amount of muscle he didn't have. Then he made the mistake of opening his mouth and unleashing the most annoying voice ever heard from a man.

"And what if we don't _want to help you_?" Grease-hair asked as he turned his nose upward in Tsuna's general direction.

Tsuna stopped all bodily movements just enough to make everyone uncomfortable. Then he made his move...probably. It was hard to see exactly _what_ his move was.

One moment Tsuna was staring blankly at Grease-hair.

The next a chair was shattering against the wall behind them, Grease-hair struggling to breathe as Tsuna pressed his left elbow into the man's throat, pinning him to the wall.

"Then I will kill you for endangering me and my family." Tsuna growled.

The meeting room was gaping at Tsuna. No one had ever even _heard_ of him acting this violent before.

But the majority quickly felt their shock be overshadowed by anger.

"How dare you threaten me!" an older woman chided Tsuna scornfully, a face of abhorrence gracing her wrinkly features as she pulled her fur scarf around her pearl necklace.

"I should teach you a lesson, _boy_." sneered a hook nosed german, motioning to the man behind him, who promptly smiled, pulling out his fake teeth and removing the rubber that used to be the gums, slipping them over his knuckles and kissing the now revealed brass.

The bodyguard put his hand on the table, vaulting over it. However, before he could remove his hand, he screamed out in pain as it exploded, blood shooting upwards.

The mist illusion faded to show Chrome standing next to the bodyguard, the head of her trident detached from it's pole and impaling the hand on the table. The staff was in Chrome's other hand, which was currently twirling it. She slammed it into the bodyguard's temple, watching as he slumped to the floor. Ignoring the sound of flesh ripping as the bodyguard's weight began to tug the hand down, creating a gash through it; as well as rip at the shoulder muscles, Chrome glared at the german boss.

"Slut!" Screamed the man. In response, Chrome kicked the bottom of his chair, pushing up as she did so. She got the double satisfaction of watching his eyes screw up in pain and his face turn white as he puked from the pressure that had been applied through the broken chair onto his genitalia as he fell to the floor, his head hitting the linoleum of the hospital with a resounding crack.

"Two options." Chrome said, looking around. "Work or die. Your choice."

Tsuna's eyes, throughout the whole scuffle, never left Grease-hair's. But that didn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. _You go, woman._ He thought proudly.

"Sc-screw you." Grease-hair choked out, his face red from a reduced supply of oxygen.

Tsuna shook his head sorrowfully, before removing his elbow. Grease-hair slumped to the floor, gasping for air. He didn't have much time to catch his breath before Tsuna picked him up by his collar and lifted him so they were nose to nose. Sighing, Tsuna closed his eyes, spun, and threw Grease-hair into the woman with the fur scarf. They both toppled out of their chair, the woman hitting her head on the floor as Grease-hair struggled to breathe.

Tsuna looked around the room one last time. Almost everyone was glaring at him, sneering at his rash actions. Normally, he would be upset with the way he was acting. However, right then he was just too tired to care.

"I can see none of you are going to be compliant." Tsuna said. He gave them an over exaggerated bow, before looking back up and saying "Goodbye."

He smiled as practically every bodyguard in the room bull rushed him. Just as they got an arms length away, the group was momentarily surrounded by strange black symbols before being slammed into the ground, crushed so thoroughly that they left a small crater in the floor.

Dino whistled from his chair, one of the few people still sitting. "You know Enma, you really need to learn to turn down the rage."

Kira gave a very unladylike snort from the other side of the room. "Right." she said in her accented japanese. "Because that's entirely possible for the _Shimon_." Her bodyguard sneered next to her in agreement. The Giegue had never completely forgiven Adelheid and the Shimon for annihilating the majority of their family, including the Boss of the family at the time, Kira's uncle, along with his wife and brother.

Enma shrugged, flames on his forehead dying as he returned to his normal, apathetic self. "It worked." He stated simply.

"Is it over?" Uni whispered softly, hands over her eyes as she bowed her head. Gamma pated her back empathetically.

"It is nooooooooooww!" Longchamp called.

"In the end." muttered Aoba as he stood.

"Time to go?" asked Adelheid as she rose as well, looking at Tsuna.

He nodded. "Let's get out of this tomb." he said, walking purposefully towards the door, Chrome matching step with him almost instantly. The others filed out of the room as well, Uni still with her hands over her eyes.

The last out of the room was Longchamp, who picked up the now empty clips laying around the floor around him. "So much wasted ammo." He sighed theatrically as he stuffed the empty clips into various pockets, under his trench coat, along with all the other illegal weaponry he was a master at smuggling around. He walked out of the former meeting room, unscrewing the silencer on his pistol as he walked through the door, leaving the bodies of all the dead mafia bosses behind.

* * *

"So, what now?" asked Romario, pushing his glasses up as they all traveled to the diner that their bosses had gathered at three days previously.

"Well, from what Kyoya's mentioned, these guys have been threatening all of our establishments." Commented Dino. "But two days ago they all just disappeared."

"Any chance that they just gave up?" Uni asked hopefully.

Adelheid snorted. "More like they decided they needed more strength here."

As they entered the diner, the bosses separated from their guards and turned towards them. "Soo..." Longchamp trailed off.

"Go away." Kira said gruffly. This sentiment was met with...shock, to say the least.

"No way in hell." said Kira's bodyguard, a lanky man who called himself Venitcio.

"It's safer if we stick with you all, in the end." Aoba explained.

"Safer? We can't be safe from these people." Tsuna sighed.

"Besides, we have information that we don't want leaking out to the other families." Dino added.

"VOOOOII. The other families are dead, idiot!" Growled Squalo.

"Which is exactly why you all need to go and contact your family's HQ, to notifiy them to look out for any retaliatory strikes." Enma drawled monotonously.

Gamma shook his head. "That can be done later-"

"Or it can be done now." stressed Tsuna, earning a sharp glare from Gamma. As the older man opened his mouth to retort, Chrome spoke up.

"Very well." she said. All heads snapped to her.

"Umm...Chrome-dono?" Basil asked tentatively. "Are you...suggesting we leave them alone...unprotected?"

"They aren't going to listen to us." she said, shooting Tsuna an unreadable look before turning to Basil. "Might as well just let them get to a safer spot then force them to stand here in the entryway, where everyone passes by them and they can get sniped."

Chrome turned around, walking back out onto the street.

"Wait a minute!" Cried Adelheid. "You're just going to let them do this? You're just going to accept it and move on?"

Chrome stopped, slowly turning her head to look over her shoulder. She looked at Adelheid for a moment, then let her eye wander over to Tsuna. He flashed her a confused smile.

"No sex for a month." she calmly stated before continuing down the street, the shocked silence behind her quickly being broken by a strangled indignant protest followed by roaring laughter. She couldn't help the small smile that momentarily graced her lips.

* * *

"Wow Tsuna. Never expected you to like the ones with backbone." nonchalantly commented Kira as she stirred her coffee. Her shoulders vibrated ever so slightly, trying to contain the laughter that had escaped everyone as Chrome had left behind a shocked, obviously dejected Tsuna.

"You were like a little puppy who had just been told he couldn't wag his tail." snickered Uni.

"Oh, I'm sure that's not to far off Uni. Right little brother?" smiled Dino mischievously. He put an elbow on the table in front of them, wagging a finger at Tsuna mockingly. "Remember now, no wagging appendages." He laughed as he ducked a swipe from Tsuna.

"Har har." Tsuna growled, impatiently tapping his foot against the metal table stand, making an annoying ticking noise. "Now that we're all done once again pointing out I'm the only one of us with a sex life-" Tsuna paused to listen to the blissful silence that had descended on the table- "-can we actually get something done?"

_tick, tick, tick._

"Is there anything more left to do?" asked Enma quietly, sipping at his Coke as he rose an eyebrow.

Longchamp rose his glass of herbal tea to the roof. "PAAAARRTTTYYY!" he screamed, downing the whole cup with one drink and slamming it back onto the table, causing it to crack in half.

_tick, tick, tick._

Tsuna shook his head as he drank his water, pulling out another caffeine tablet.

"Your having _another_ one of those?" asked Uni incredulously, eyes popping out over her mug of apple juice.

"That's not exactly healthy." Dino said, frowning at the pill as it went into Tsuna's mouth, traveling down his throat. Tsuna only shrugged in response.

_tick, tick tick._

Dino rolled his eyes and had another swig of lemonade as Tsuna looked back to Enma, trying to answer his question a bit better then Longchamp. "Well, we have everything set up. With Chrome walking off like that, they'll be bound to try and corner her. They probably won't kill her until they can drag her in front of me. Then we'll just have to overpower them and save her, hopefully taking them out at the same time."

_Tick tick tick._

Kira muttered "There's a lot of uncertainty in this plan."

Tsuna nodded. "We'll just have to go with it, and hope that they won't do anything too bad to Chrome."

_Tick Tick Tick_

"Would you stop with that annoying ticking?" asked Dino. "It's getting old."

_Tick Tick Tick_

"I'm not doing that." Tsuna said.

_Tick Tick Tick_

"Wait, you aren't hitting your foot against the leg anymore?" Asked Uni. Tsuna shook his head.

_TICK TICK TICK_

"Well then if it isn't Tsuna, what is it?" asked Enma.

_TICK TICK TI-clunk._

"BOMB!" Shouted Longchamp, throwing himself over the table as the world around them erupted with fire and shrapnel.

* * *

_Seconds_.

Chrome heard a large explosion, and looked out the window of her hotel room to see an explosion near the diner. "Boss." She had whispered in shock as she was peeling down the hallways, not even knowing what she was going to do.

* * *

_Minutes._

By the time she had left the sight of the Dream Sky, everyone had already regrouped. Romario had pulled out a gun and pulled the trigger a few times, scaring people, shouting "Chivarone representative, coming through!" They had reached the wreckage of the diner shortly, hoping into the ambulances as they carried bodies out of the shell that used to be a building.

* * *

_Hours_

They had all been informed that every single boss was in critical condition, that none of them looked good, and it would be best to make their peace now and then thank God if even one of them somehow woke up.

But Chrome knew better. She'd gotten into many heated arguments with Ryohei on the issue. He was a firm believer, she was a firm atheist. He believed that everything happened for reasons that they couldn't explain, that they all had a destiny, and were constantly working towards it. She believed that they blazed their own trail, using their own power to resist the greedy pull of the world.

That was why she scoffed at the idea of Tsuna being killed by an explosion. He was the most powerful being she had ever met, with a power that practically transcended human understanding. He would wake up, and he would look around, and he would smile, then fix things. With his own power. Just like he always had.

* * *

_Days_

The explosion happened Friday afternoon. 30 killed, another 57 wounded. The debris had been cleared out, the bodies buried, the wounds treated...except for the bosses. They were all still undetermined, whether they would succumb to their wounds or rise out of their beds was still unknown.

For the rest of Friday, Chrome had sat in front of Tsuna's door, knees pulled up to her chest, watching anyone that came close, glaring at the doctors who wouldn't let her see Tsuna as they came and went.

Friday night, she used illusions to hide herself, remaining at her place, moving only when the janitors came by to clean the spot she'd been hiding in.

* * *

Saturday was the day of movement. She paced back and forth between Tsuna's door and the opposite wall, waiting for something to happen. The other guards came and went, checking in on their own bosses. From what she could gather at the bits of conversation she overheard, Gamma was taking it worst of all. Second to her, that is. She of course didn't understand how they thought she was taking this _hard_. She knew he was going to wake up, and to think otherwise was foolish. So she was going to wait right there till he did. After all, it'd only be a matter of time until Tsuna would wake back up and say something witty before explaining yet another wonderfully obscure way to use sky flames to heal. He'd be up and good as new, eventually...right?

Saturday night was the worst because she finally fell asleep that night. And had the most horrible nightmares one could imagine.

Fire had never scared her because she had watched Tsuna fight with it so many times. Yet her dreams were filled with fire. Chrome had never feared death because she had already given up on living once. Yet her dreams were filled with death. She had never feared loneliness, because for her entire normal life and every once and a while after, she felt numb and alone. Yet her dreams were filled with loneliness.

She couldn't understand why her dreams made her feel such fear. Nor could she stop the scream that had erupted from her throat as she woke up.

* * *

Sunday...sunday was it. Chrome was burnt out. She couldn't wait anymore. She needed to talk to Tsuna. She needed him to come to her and softly pet her hair as she asked if he was alright. And he would do it. He would use his power and strength and wisdom to heal himself, and come out, and fix things. After all, he'd faked his death before. This was nothing. No God could help her with this.

_It would be stupid to ask for help. It's not like 'He' could do anything. 'He' couldn't stick an angel down and just heal. No, he supposedly worked in 'Mysterious ways' which meant that 'He' didn't do anything and then if someone got really lucky, they could pin it on 'Him'._

Chrome sat down in a chair that had been set out for her, across from Tsuna's door.

_No, 'He' wouldn't be able to do anything._

She looked up towards the ceiling.

_This was stupid. She was setting herself up for disappointment. She should just patiently wait for Tsuna._

Her fingers interlaced themselves.

_Didn't she trust the man she loved? He would be out eventually. This was nothing but mumbo jumbo, mutterings in the air that we're a waste of time and energy-_

"Please." she whispered, closing her eye. "Please, help him wake up. I can't..." she tried to think of a way to formulate what she was thinking. About how much she needed Tsuna. She had never felt so alive then she had this past week. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Even if she would find herself in this position again and again, even if one day he didn't wake up, she wanted to be with him. They had so much time left. He, of all people, should be allowed to experience that.

"We all...I...let him come home." she finally decided on, a small tear escaping from under her eyelid. "Please." she practically begged, voice filled with raw emotion.

"Please."

"...Well, since you asked so nicely."

Chrome's eye snapped open as she jumped out of her seat, looking at Tsuna's closed door. Except it wasn't closed anymore. It was open, and leaning against it, paler then death - but awake - was the object of her prayers.

"BOSS!"

Tsuna smiled, winking at her. "Hey now, y-OOF!"

Chrome didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. He was alive, and awake, and talking. In three seconds, she had crossed the distance between them, hugging Tsuna, placing her forehead against his chest.

His arms encircled her, lightly pulling her so that their curves matched. "Hey now." He repeated, this time softly. "You're acting like something bad had just happened."

Chrome looked up, smiling. It was a bad joke, but it was an attempt at wit from _him_. "Not bad." she whispered back. "Good."

She didn't give him any more time to talk, instead leaning up and kissing him. His hands moved from her back to her hips once he realized she didn't want to let up any time soon.

He pulled her back into his room, shutting the door behind her before pushing her up against it.

Minutes later, when Chrome finally broke for air, she leaned her head against the door, raising an eyebrow questioningly as she panted for air. "So..." she asked. "How...did you...recover?"

"Sky flames." He answered gruffly, burying his nose in her hair, smelling her for the first time in days.

"They seem to be...quite useful." Chrome commented, slightly skeptical. Tsuna used his flames like they were multipurpose omni-tools.

"Just need a bit of imagination." Tsuna smirked. "You know EXACTLY how much of that I have."

Chrome blushed. Yes, she knew.

Tsuna pulled her close again, softly petting her hair.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly.

Tsuna nodded. "What about you?"

"I'm fine. They didn't target me at all...seems our little diversion didn't work-"

"I didn't ask if you were hurt." Tsuna interrupted. "I asked if you were okay."

Chrome stopped. She slid her hands up his back, fisting the material of his hospital gown. "No..." she whispered softly.

Tsuna rubbed the back of her neck as she cried. They leaned against his door for minutes, Tsuna comforting her as Chrome let the stress from the past week that had been building up inside her all out.

After Chrome was done, she wiped her eye and pulled away from Tsuna a bit, smiling. "Thanks." she whispered.

Tsuna nodded. "Not a problem." he said, pulling her away from the door. He stepped back outside, looking up and down the hallway. Walking out, he began to purposefully move towards where the other bosses were resting.

"Um...Boss? What're you doing?" asked Chrome.

He stopped looking over his shoulder. He smiled. "That bomb was their last big play. They're about to come at us with everything they have, thinking we're down for the count...it's time they learned that the hunter has become the hunted, and they've been dancing to our tune for quite a while now."

Turning back around, he began walking again. "I'm going to fix things, Chrome." he said loudly.

Chrome sighed, before composing herself, straightening her suit as she walked briskly to catch up to Tsuna. She'd known he was going to say that.

* * *

Tsuna sat in a chair, waiting. He hated doing that. He'd made all the necessary moves already, but waiting for them to come into effect was a pain.

"You think they're going to be okay?" asked Romario gruffly. He'd sat down next to Tsuna when he saw the young boss awake and alright, but so far hadn't said anything.

Tsuna didn't respond, instead looking around at their group. Chrome was sitting on his other side, eye closed, waiting patiently. Longchamp's bodyguard, that short, square man with the headphones and guitar, sat in a corner, tuning his instrument. Venitcio was leaning against the back wall, ever alert. Aoba was muttering to himself while practicing punches in the center of the room, behind the chairs Tsuna, Romario, and Chrome were sitting in. Adelheid was also sitting, across from Tsuna, hunched forward as she rested her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees, one foot tapping rapidly.

Gamma was a wreck. His face was in his hands, his whole frame seemingly smaller. His body shook as Tsuna listened to his labored breathing. He truly pitied the man for what was about to come his way.

A doctor walked into the waiting area. "Uhh...Will the Chivarone, Longchamp, Kozato, Giegue, and Giglionero parties please come forward?"

Everyone rose, surrounding the doctor.

"Any news?" Gamma asked quickly.

"...yes." the doctor said, scratching his balding head. He seemed to be used to having to explain this kind of information.

"First off..." the doctor paused and looked around, sighing before continuing. "Mr. Longchamp and Ms. Giegue both have ruptured organs and damaged ACL tendons in their legs. I'm assuming they were the only two to attempt and avoid the blast?" he asked Tsuna.

Tsuna nodded. "Longchamp was able to guess what was going on, and Kira was very attentative, especially to him."

The doctor nodded. "Well, they're not going to be moving around a lot for the next few months, and are going to require surgery immediately in order to replace the damaged organs."

Guitar guy stopped fidgeting with his guitar, mutely staring at the doctor as Venitcio swore under his breath. "They're going to be under for a while." he muttered.

The doctor nodded. "And that's not all of them, either."

He looked at a clipboard in his hand. "And Mr. Kozato recieved a large concussion to the back of his head, I assume he was hit by a piece of debris?" Tsuna nodded. "Thought so. His brain has partially shut down, and he has gone into a coma."

"When will he wake up?" asked Adelheid quietly.

The doctor shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Adelheid flinched, then began fake coughing, trying to cover it up.

Aoba shakily pushed up his glasses. "W-well, in the end at least we have the good news to bring us hope."

The doctor cleared his throat, staring very intently at his clipboard, as if it would bring him all the answers. "Yes, well...that _was_ the good news."

Everyone stopped. Stopped fidgeting, stopped speaking, stopped breathing.

"Ms. Giglionero suffered multiple lacerations across her thoracic vertebrae-"

"Her what?" asked Gamma, confused.

"The middle of her spinal cord." whispered Chrome.

Gamma paled, his eyes losing their color.

"Yes," coughed the doctor. "The young miss suffered multiple deep gashes across her spinal cord, severely damaging the nerves. We don't think we'd be able to reatach them, and from the burn marks found around the damaged area, we assume that she was hit by shrapnel from the explosive, and not from broken pieces of glass or timber."

Tsuna nodded. "She was closest to the bomb." he whispered hoarsely.

"Well, she is also one of the worst hurt. Because of the damage to her nerve endings, her brain cannot send signals to anywhere from the middle of her back down."

"Wh-what're you saying?" asked Gamma, his voice an octave higher, pleading. "Are you saying she can't..._walk?_"

The doctor exhaled shortly before looking Gamma right in the eye. "No. I'm saying that from the bottom of her ribacage down, everything is unresponsive. Not only can she not walk, she can't feel herself to know when she's hungry or full. She won't know when to go to the bathroom. Even her diaphragm has sustained some damage; she'll have trouble breathing for the rest of her life."

Gamma shook his head slowly, eyes tearing up. "Princess." he muttered, over and over, slowly lowering his head till it touched the floor, crumpling into a ball.

"Wait!" Romario spoke sharply. "You said that Uni was 'one of the worst damaged'. Does that mean..." he trailed off, waiting for an explination.

"You are the party here for Mr. Chivarone?" asked the doctor.

Romario nodded.

The doctor closed his eyes, trying to sigh but finding he had no air to expel. Instead he patted Romario on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss." was all he said before walking away.

"What does he mean-" Romario tried to ask before Dino's hospital room door opened, and they all finally heard it. The sharp, high pitch, constant scream of a heartbeat sensor...flatlining.

When the door opened fully, two nurses walked out, pushing a gurney along out of the room. On the gurney was a body, a blanket over it. But the golden hair sticking out of the top of it was unmistakeable.

"No..." Romario whispered. He tried breathing, but found his lungs wouldn't work. He fell to his knees. "No..." He bent over, placing his forearms on the linoleum below him to keep from completly collapsing. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed as he smashed his fist into the linoleum again and again, breaking every knuckle and finger bone in his left fist.

"It's true, Romario." whispered Tsuna hoarsely, eyes red. "Dino is dead."

* * *

Tsuna had been admitted out of the hospital hours later, after they had recived a very large donation from a fishing company in Japan that caught and sold clams.

Tsuna sat on the roof of the dream sky, watching the sun set as storm clouds rolled in, not yet beginning their deluge, but darkening the sky and ruining a very nice view of the sky.

Even though the elder man was standing close to twenty feet behind him, he could still hear Romario gritting his teeth, his gun already locked and loaded. Beside him, Basil rested a comforting hand on his shoulder as he loosely gripped his bladed boomerang in another. Squalo was pacing in a circle, teeth bared as he glared at the world. Adelheid was running a cloth along her scythe blades, eyes closed as she humed a small tune to herself. Aoba was running through practice boxing maneuvers, darting in and around as he punched forward with all his might. Guitar guy was busy refitting his strings with solid silver tendrils, plucking at them as he released small waves of storm flame. Gamma was lying on his back away from everyone else, staring blankly at the sky as he held a pool rod in front of him, as if it would block him from the truth. Venitcio simply sat cross legged in the very center of the roof, eyes shadowed over by his skull mask. "Vongola." he whispered.

"I know." replied Tsuna, standing and walking over to the edge of the roof. "Well, this is it." he said to the sky above him. "You've played all your cards, run through all the lines in your script. It's time for the finale..." he turned around. "...Cheryl."

The offending woman stood six feet in front of Venitcio, startling everyone. Romario recovered quickly, and with a gutteral yell, aimed his pistol at her. A gunshot rang out across the roof as, from the top of the fire escape, three men finished climbing the ladder to rejoin with the other two men of the group, one of which had shot Romario in the hand, forcing him to drop the gun.

The assassins of the _Demonio Guerirro _were dressed like they always were; Black cotton clothing hiding all the skin from their neck to their ankles, their hands covered by skin tight gloves and their feet by combat boots. They wore special forces flak jackets and had utility belts stuffed full of extra ammo and grenades. On their heads, they wore ski masks, modified to have the faces of demons on the front. Each face had a good share of teeth and fangs and beady eyes and flaming facial hair. Except for the leaders, who was dressed in white instead of black. His face instead had an image of a tornado sucking up small people into it's vortex.

Cheryl raised her hands, clapping in the air above her twice. Instantly, another thirty men jumped up from the positions they'd been hanging on the wall, pulling out various swords and guns, igniting them with dying will flames.

They began to close in on the group. In response, the Vongola and their allies backed up until they formed a circle of their own, making sure each of their backs was covered.

"Did you really think your plan would work, Master Sawada?" asked Cheryl, a smirk playing at her lips.

"Which one?" asked Tsuna, raising an eyeborw.

Cheryl shook her head in response, before quickly raising a hand to catch something invisible going towards her ear. She quickly flicked her wrist up, and a snapping sound resounded across the roof. She then spun, bending over as she switched whatever she was holding in her hand over to her other hand, before she shot up and to the side, quick as lighting stabbing her invisible object into thin air.

Except thin air doesn't bleed. And thin air surely doesn't turn into Chrome Dokuro, trident in hand with the middle spike missing as she falls over onto her knees, the missing spike buried in between two of her ribs and nestled inside the left atrium of her heart.

"That was a _real_ Vongola's skill." sneered Cheryl as she watched Chrome cough. "Boss." she worked out of her mouth as she grabbed at the spike, trying to pull it out.

Then Cheryl violently kicked it all the way into Chrome body, and the illusionist cried out before toppling over.

In a second Tsuna was behind Cheryl, holding her in a chokehold as the woman clawed at his arms. Tsuna looked over to Chrome's body, which was fidgeting as she gasped for breath, her hands still on the hole in the side of her body. He could feel his flames burn hotter, and his face contorted into one of pure rage as Cheryl got enough of a hold to pull Tsuna's arm down enough to breathe in a lungful of air.

"KILL THEM!" Both bosses commanded loudly, and all hell broke loose.

Flames of all colors exploded on the rooftop as gunshots filled the air, the sheer force of the explosions knocked the 'D' of the hotel's sign off it's supports. The thundering crash it made as it slammed into the ground was very outmatched to the yells of the mafiosi fighting. "Tsuna!" Screamed Basil as he threw his boomerang, decapitating an assassin as he ducked a bullet and he kicked at another man who was about to swing a storm flame coever european broadsword at his head. "We need your help!"

"You heard him." Gasped Cheryl. "They need your _help_. Useless bastards-"

She began coughing roughly as Tsuna cut off her air. "First of all, those are my _friends_ you are insulting." he stressed. "And secondly, I'll go help them right after you meant. How are you a Vongola in _any_ way?"

Cheryl smiled a foxy smile at him, but it quickly turned to a grimace. "C-come now, Master Sawada. You p-put it together yourself-f. You're smart-" she coughed again, trying to get more air.

"Spell it out for me, NOW." Tsuna growled demandingly.

"And if I don't?" she gasped.

Tsuna flashed his flames, covering her body in if for a moment. But a moment was all that was needed to turn her body a bright pink. "Tell me or you'll find out exactly _how_ deep I can burn away a person's flesh without killing them."

Cheryl's smile didn't leave her face. "I didn't think you'd react so harshly from me killing that slu-" sky flames brighter then any flame of wrath Xanxus could summon sourrounded Cheryl as she screamed.

"DAEMON!" She finally screamed to the darkening clouds above her.

Tsuna extinguished his flames. "What did you say?"

"Daemon Spade..." Cheryl panted. "When he took over...when he took over the family and forced Primo-sama to leave italy, did you really think every Vongola just bowed down to him? But with Ricardo becoming the second, and his flame of wrath undefeatable by anyone except Primo-sama, we bit our tongues and waited, going into hiding when those traitorous bastards finally caught wind of us. We always maintained Primo-sama's message though. Protect the people, defeat the wicked."

Tsuna couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're...you're really _Vongola_! How come I never heard of you?"

"We hid from the main family." Cheryl whispered, the burns over her body darkening. "We couldn't risk exposure, so we integrated with society, striking out when we could. We we're waiting."

"For what." Tsuna asked sharply.

Cheryl looked up at him, eyes shining. "_You_. Before he left, Primo-sama prophesied that one day his will would return, to bring Vongola back to it's roots. He promised that even after death, his soul would not rest until he made sure of this."

Tsuna stiffened. It was true that he hadn't spoken to Primo since becoming a competent, independent boss, but he should still be in the ring, waiting...right?

"You're the will of Giotto Vongola!" Cheryl proclaimed. "You're OUR true leader! We've been trying to keep tabs on everything around the world as we watied, but we were so paranoid of being discovered, and were so deep in hiding, we couldn't do much outside of this city, the city where Vongola Primo was born...where he started his vigilante group."

Cheyrl was becoming hysteric now, smiling at Tsuna from ear to ear. "We've waited for so long...generations going by hoping that they would be able to see you before they died, generations working toward this one moment."

"What're you talking about." Tsuna narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you see!" Cheryl yelled. "We're here to welcome you to the real family!"

"I already have a family." Tsuna said.

Cheryl shook her head as much as she could. "A group of misfits who doesn't see the _real_ you...who only follows their interpretation of your orders, who hold absolutely no respect for you and constantly embarrass you with their childish antics. They aren't a family, they're a nuisance." she snorted. "And you know it." she added as an afterthought.

Tsuna released her from his hold, taking two steps back. "W-what?" he stuttered, looking at her, shocked.

"You know I'm correct." Cheryl said, taking a step towards him. "You hate them, you have from the moment you met each of them. They've made your life a living hell, and dragged you down a path you never wanted. But we're different. You see the man in white over there?" Cheryl pointed at the man with the tornado on his face mask. He was currently engaged with Squalo, using nothing but his bare hands to fight the second sword emperor. He would grab Squalo's blade, and shower him with punches before Squalo could get awake. He never let up in his attacks, constantly fighting as he directed the troops...just like...just like...

"He's your _real_ storm guardian." Cheryl whispered, like she was a child telling her sibling where the parents hid their christmas presents. "Can you imagine it, Master Sawada? A right hand who actually helps you with your job? A left hand who can take a situation seriously, and lead troops in battle, to whatever end? A cloud guardian who doesn't oppose everything you say? A sun guardian who will kill all the enemies on a battlefield, instead of doing stupid one-on-one's until the opponent is incapacitated? A lightning guardian who is actual use! A mist guardian who you don't have to constantly look over your shoulder for?"

Cheryl looked behind her. She sneered at Chrome, who's breathing was shallow, her eye almost closed. "Or better yet, having an actual mist guardian. Honestly Master Sawada, how did you ever put up with an ugly slut like her?"

Tsuna slowly shook his head, dying will long gone. "Don't know..."

"B-boss." Chrome whispered, tilting her head to look at where Tsuna was. The din of the battle on her other side had faded long ago. Now only Tsuna was in her vision. Only Tsuna could help her. He'd come over and heal her, and they'd defeat the enemy, and live together forever-

"The family I always wanted in middle school." Tsuna whispered in awe, walking over to Cheryl, reaching out a hand to touch her. He stopped short. "The perfect family..."

Cheryl nodded excitedly. "And...the perfect wife." she blushed. "I'd...I'd be perfect for you. I know what you like, and I've made sure to model myself after it. How this slut-" Cheryl motioned with her head over to Chrome, "-ever distracted you from your dream girl, I'll never know."

She closed the gap between them, hugging Tsuna around his chest. "But it's okay! I forgive you! Now just wait for the men to finish off all those corrupt family leaders trying to poison you from your true path, then we can go back to the hideout..." Cheryl pulled out one hand from around Tsuna, slowly drawing circles on his chest, "...and I can show you just how much of a woman I am..." she looked at Tsuna, eyes lidded with lust. "...and we can spend forever together."

Tsuna stared at her, wide eyed. "...yes..." he whispered, in a daze.

"Boss!" Chrome cried out, blood running out the side of her mouth. She knew she was dying. And she was scared. She didn't want to go yet. But she couldn't stop it. So she needed to see his face up close, she needed him to tell her it'd all be okay soon. She needed him close.

Instead, the last scene she saw was Cheryl flashing her a triumphant smile as Tsuna took of his gloves, taking her face in his hands, and leaning close to her, their eyes closing as it began to rain.

**And I end things here...no not really, but there is only one more chapter left. Which should be up by next weekend at the latest. Then I will begin preparing whatever story you all want me to. So it's important you vote on my poll! seriously, you can't see the results yet, but I can, and currently we are at a three way tie! Go and vote (and if you all somehow make it into a four way tie, I swear I'll just start working on the least popular and make it the best I can.)**

**Anyway, this was the climax. Lengthy? yes. But I couldn't find a place that I felt comfortable cutting it off at and not having a half chapter follow it. Anyway, This is sort of to make up for being gone for so long anyway.**

**I hope you reviewed, but understand if you didn't. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, thanks for reading.**


	10. Chapter 10: Moving Out to the Next Fight

**Long authors note and review responses at the end of the chapter; mostly because you need to read the chapter first before you can understand my responses. I hope you like it, and please review.**

**Now, onto the final chapter of **_**The Boss Gathering**_**.**

_DING DONG_

The doorbell rang. The noise reverberated through a small house, lightly furnished, with only the basic things someone needed to live. A couch here. A small T.V. across the room there. Everything was neat and orderly, as if it was kept in very good condition...or never used.

_Creeeeeeeeeeaaaaaak_

The door at the front of the house opened slowly, sending up a light coating of dust that had been across the floor. A man stepped into the house, looking around. Everywhere there was dust; across every surface was a small blanket of gray. The man looked around, walking across the living room, his clogs kicking up only a fraction of the dirt he stepped on as he moved.

When he reached the other side of the living room, he turned and walked down the main hallway, the walls on either side of him bare of any form of decoration and beginning to yellow. When he reached the end of the hallway, he peered into a small room, flicking out a fan to hide all of his face below his eyes.

He peered into the dark bedroom. Although, to call it a bedroom would be overestimating it's size, which was only about that of two walk in closets. It seemed as if all the personal items that should have been spread out among the house had been crammed into this one small space. Small pieces of furniture were decorated with pictures of boys fighting and old destroyed buildings. Old pieces of junk and piles of clothes surrounded said pictures and furniture, which seemed to be all surrounding a mattress in the center of the room, covered in dark blue sheets.

The man stepped into the room, looking at the pictures fading from not being cleaned and the furniture swelling from too much moisture. The sheets were wrinkled, as if they'd been balled up and never properly straightened. The man, who was the landlord of the small living area, squatted down, running two fingers along the hardwood floor. When he picked his fingers back up, they were covered in so much dust, they looked black.

He stood back up, brushing the dust off him as he pulled down his green and white striped bucket hat. "Has it really been three months?" he asked quietly, scratching at his stubble.

But it had been three months. Three months since the former occupant of this house left on a trip to Italy...and never set foot back in.

* * *

_Three months earlier_

Tsuna closed the distance between him and Cheryl. He noticed Cheryl looked over at Chrome briefly, a smirk on her face. He didn't look over; he couldn't. He would give everything away. Instead, he made a show of removing his gloves. He put them in a back pocket as Cheryl turned back towards him, smiling angelically.

He took her face in his hands, cupping her cheeks softly. He leaned forward, eyes half closing. He could see Cheryl's eyes close quickly as she got up on her toes.

"Cheryl." he whispered as he stopped his lips, an inch away from hers.

"Yes, my love?" she called out lustfully, eyes still closed.

"Before I lose all ability to think, there's something I have to tell you." he said.

"Yes?" she said breathlessly.

He moved his mouth from her lips to her ear. He got it right next to the shell of her ear, his breath tickling her inner ear canals.

"Checkmate." he whispered softly.

His hands slid from her cheeks to her shoulders, and pushed her backwards roughly. She stumbled back a few steps before violently freezing as a ripping noise came from her chest.

Cheryl stopped trying to right herself, because she found something supporting her from the small of her back. _No...wait...that support isn't coming from BEHIND my back..._ she thought. _It almost feels like it's..._ she didn't finish the thought, distracted by a warm liquid dribbling down the side of her mouth. She tried to raise a hand up to her lips, but found it was shaking too badly. Instead, she slowly looked down.

Protruding out of the middle of her chest was a small spearhead.

_No...not spear_ Cheryl corrected as she felt two other, smaller points of pain at her shoulder blades.

_Trident_

Cheryl cast her gaze over the body of Chrome Dokuro...or what was left of it. The mist illusion had been fading quickly, leaving behind nothing to show that a corpse had been there seconds before.

"Who's the fake Guardian now?" asked Chrome from behind Cheryl, putting a hand on the woman's back and pulling her trident out. Cheryl, now missing her support, fell back. Chrome caught her, and eased her slowly to the ground.

"Remember Chrome- we need her alive. The Vindice are going to be pissed as it is, we need someone to hand over." Tsuna reminded her as he walked over.

Chrome nodded. "Go, I'll bandage her up." she offered.

Tsuna rose an eyebrow. "Okay. Remember...she needs to be alive." he said, before turning and walking off toward the stairwell that would take him back into the building.

Cheryl tried laughing as she watched Tsuna walk away, but a coughing fit overtook her and instead she shot some blood out of her mouth. "You...really think he's on your side-"

Chrome stood and slammed the butt of her trident into Cheryl's nose. She felt pleased when a loud _crack_ sounded out from under it, followed by a few choice words from Cheryl.

"SLUT!" she screamed, trying to hold her nose. "WITCH! How dare you seduce Master Sawada-"

"He came to me, not the other way around." Chrome said softly, before stomping on Cheryl, right on top of where her trident's head had been sticking out of earlier.

Cheryl tried to scream, but the blood pooling in the back of her throat kept her from making any noise. Instead, she began retching, tilting her head to the side and shooting more blood out.

"However, I've grown quite attached to my Boss, so I suggest you don't _ever_ touch him again." Chrome whispered, squatting down close to Cheryl's face, trident in the crook of her elbow.

"Or what?" Cheryl spat out.

"I've broken into Vendicare before." Chrome said, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "Won't be too hard to do it again."

Cheryl smiled. "Now, what makes you say that those demons will be able to catch me? Did you not think that we would prepare an alternative for just in case your poisonous lies couldn't be sucked from his body right away? Even with his help, your forces will still die. We have plenty of troops on standby who are willing to die to subdue him. You still lose."

Chrome shook her head as she created illusionary bandages around Cheryl, tightening them far too tight for comfort. "You mean the standby forces that have been surrounding the building since we arrived? The standby forces that have been watching this roof so closely that they don't notice much around them?"

Cheryl opened her mouth, but the building suddenly shook as if being rocked by an earthquake, taking her words from her.

"And the standby forces that were just flattened into pancakes by Kozato Enma?" Chrome asked innocently.

Cheryl's face paled considerably, though from blood loss or fear, Chrome didn't know. Or care. It was satisfying enough just getting that kind of reaction out of her.

"Impossible..." Cheryl muttered. "He's...coma..."

Chrome simply stood, walking to Cheryl's head. Sitting down, Chrome drew Cheryl's head up onto her lap, so she could see how the battle was unfolding.

The so called 'Real Vongola' had surrounded Basil, Squalo, and the others, and were trying desperately to attack them. But they couldn't, not with a orange barrier of fire protecting them from every bullet, blade, and flame.

"H-H-hi-ime?" asked Gamma, stuttering as he tried to rub at his eyes, staring at Uni as she smiled at him.

"Follow me everyone." she said calmly as she began walking towards Chrome, the flame bubble following at each other's mirroring faces of shock, the bodyguards followed.

All attacks against them stopped as they watched a child who was supposed to have a damaged spinal cord nonchalantly walk away from a battle.

The storm warrior was the first to recover. Pulling a knife out of a back pocket, he condensed a huge storm flame into it till the energy was like a cover to the knife. He charged, slightly hunched, his body poised to leap and strike. As he got right next to the bubble, he slashed, creating a small opening.

That was all he was able to do, however, since as he began to try and slash again at the bubble, a knife flew out and nailed him in the hand. He dropped the knife, rolling to the side as his head snapped around.

He started. Not ten feet behind him stood a woman that looked to be in her late twenties, with a cracked, bronze colored skull mask covering her face. The openings for the eyes seemed to be covered by some light cloth, concealing what was behind it. The woman's hair perfectly framed it, the blonde tendrils seemingly bone white with the final rays of sunlight behind her. Her dark pink tank top and black short shorts had many belts and straps covering them, each filled with innumerable throwing knives. A thick, dark blue cloak finished the look off, swaying behind her as she quickly closed the distance.

"Will you smile for me?" Kira asked softly as she quickly darted to the storm warrior's side, pulling out some knives with one hand as she threw her cloak in front of the warrior's face with the other. Tossing the knives in the air, the arm that tossed the cloak plucked them from above her head, rolling them around a bit before holding them in between her fingers in some intricate pattern. Quick as lighting, Kira struck, slamming the blades through the cloak...which was wrapped around the man's head.

She shoved the knives in down to their hilts, then twisted, ripping upwards. Grabbing the cloak as she pulled the knives out, she spun and wrapped it around her again. As her victim fell, his face practically ripped off, the enemy soldiers stared at the Giegue boss. And from her cloak, a newly ripped, blood rimmed smiley face with pluses for eyes smiled back.

Then the wind caught it and it unfurled fully, showing that the cloak was covered in smiley faces, all uniformly straight, in defined columns and rows. "Almost completed this one too." Kira muttered as she looked down at the cloak, where there were two more spots left in it's bottom right corner that had yet to be ripped. She looked back at the group. "Any volunteers?" she asked, motioning with her knives to the empty spots.

"AAAAWWWW, Kira-chaaaan! You can't go offering like that! You'll scare the poor bastards!" yelled one of the most annoying voices the planet could house. Yet it still brought light to everyone's eyes.

Longchamp stood huffing at the edge of the roof, one hand still on a cable. "Ya'know...I don't...know how...those army guys...always do this so...EASILY!" he flopped onto the ground.

The assassins all looked at each other. One of them hesitantly pointed a gun at Longchamp. Suddenly, with a large _BANG_ to accompany it, the man's head was gone.

"Now, now!" Longchamp scoldingly teased, waving a finger at the assassins with one hand as the other held a sawed off double barrel shotgun. "Don't cha'know that it's bad to kick a man while he's down."

With a yawn, Longchamp stood up again, almost lazily killing another man. "You guys...you..." Longchamp sighed as he reloaded his shotgun, pulling out another exactly like it. "You really make me angry." He glared at the assassins before shouting "GOODBYE!" and opening fire.

Uni was still walking toward Chrome, eyes closed very tightly and hands over her ears. Chrome sent out an illusionary dove, which went through the flame barrier, and landed on Uni's shoulder, petting her hair affectionately. Uni stopped moving, and just waited.

Meanwhile, Kira and Longchamp were tag teaming the assassins, cutting a bloody swathe through them and running, skidding to a halt next to Chrome.

"HOW YA BEEN, PRETTY LADY?" asked Longchamp, still on an adrenaline rush from the battle.

"Longchamp, quiet down, you're going to pop the girl's eardrums." said Kira, punching his arm affectionally.

"Yes Longchamp, _back off_." said Tsuna pointedly, looking at the small gap between him and Chrome as he walked towards the group.

"Done?" asked Chrome.

Tsuna nodded. "Vindice will be here inside of ten minutes. Let's make this quick."

"Reeeelax, reeeeelax. No need to get feisty." Longchamp smiled at Tsuna. Tsuna looked like he was going to continue with a bit of verbal banter before Cheryl spoke up.

"Wai...no! You're all supposed to be injured...dying..." she looked at Kira, Longchamp, and Uni with wide eyes.

"Come now. We're allies of Vongola Decimo. Did you really think we would be the kind of people to just sit around and wait for you to kill us?"

Cheryl's head rolled, her eyes darting to behind Chrome.

Enma walked forward, gauntlet covered hands in the pockets of his trench coat and dying will flame still on his head, a victorious smirk on his face.

"We knew you were going to pull something at the diner." he began explaining. "So we positioned ourselves two tables away from where we've always sat, and made sure to order something without alcohol in it. Don't want our thinned blood leaking everywhere, do we?"

"B-but the blast, it should have still severely wounded you. you shouldn't have been able to help!" Cheryl shouted desperately.

"Aaah yes. That's where Tsuna came in." he nodded toward the Vongola boss, who was now sitting on the ground, before continuing. "He snuck into each of our rooms and healed us with a new process he came up with before sneaking us out and letting Chrome create illusions of us." He winked at Chrome. "Thanks for that, by the way."

Chrome nodded once.

"Wait...so you're all fine?" asked Cheryl.

"Yes." Enma said darkly, leaning forward. "All of us."

Cheryl, along with everyone but the bosses, rose a questioning eyebrow.

"Come now Enma! You can't go and just lay down something thick like that! You have to build up better, make some reference to horses or something. And anyway, why are you explaining Tsuna's grand master plan?"

Dino stood behind Tsuna, ruffling his hair. "Shouldn't my little brother be the one to gloat?"

Everyone stopped for a moment. Then all hell broke loose.

"BOSS!" yelled Romario, shooting towards Dino. He hugged the younger man tightly, crying tears of joy.

Guitar guy gaped at Longchamp before holding out a fist. Longchamp bumped fists with him, smiling.

Venitcio bowed low to Kira, who patted his shoulder.

Gamma clung to Uni's legs, sobbing. Uni smiled down at her step father.

Enma used his flames one last time, slamming the remaining assassins into the ground before letting his flames die out and his Shimon ring become inactive. He nodded at Aoba and Adelheid.

Aoba, after gaping for a second, began laughing uncontrollably. He fell, rolling on the ground as Adelheid sighed. "I don't know why you're all acting shocked." She said. "Did you really think I'd not see that the Enma lying in the hospital bed was an illusion right away?"

Chrome's eyebrow twitched involuntarily. Resisting the urge to pout, she muttered "You always say that."

Basil smiled, sitting down next to Tsuna. "Marvelous plan, Tsuna-dono."

"VOOOOOOOII!" yelled Squalo. "Would you give us a bit more warning next time?"

Tsuna shook his head. "But then we had the risk of being found out. Besides, everyone's alive and okay, so what's the problem?"

A vein in Squalo's head popped out.

"Anyway," Tsuna continued, "You're reactions are hilarious."

"VOOOOOOOIIII!" Squalo screamed, swiping for Tsuna's head. In response, Tsuna pulled out a pair of chopsticks from the inside of his jacket, catching Squalo's blade in between them. "Too slow." he commented nonchalantly.

"Uh, Boss. Vindice?" Chrome reminded him.

"Oh right!" Tsuna said. "Guyswegottago." he said quickly, running to the stairwell and avoiding puddles.

"Why did Tsuna call the Vindice again?" asked Uni.

"We need someone to pin the murders of the other bosses on." Kira said. She nodded towards Cheryl. "This is the perfect scapegoat."

"Tsuna really had this thought through, in the end." commented Aoba with a nod.

Dino smiled. "Yup! He got his head in gear while he was recovering to come up with the perfect ambush-"

"Uh, Guys?" asked Enma. "I know we all love to rant about how awesome Tsuna-kun is, but we should really get moving _before_ the Vindice arrive."

He sprinted after Tsuna. Adelheid brushed off the sleeve of her jacket. "Enma and Tsuna both have a bit of an aversion to the Vindice, since their fight." she explained.

General noises of understanding were made.

"So...should we go?" asked Uni.

Chrome stood, letting Cheryl's head hit the concrete with a _thud_. The illsuionist turned, quickly walking to the stairwell, the clicking noises her boots made against the ground mixing in with the lightening rain.

With a shrug, Basil stood as well, following. Everyone else began moving as well, striking up light conversation or healing wounds. One by one, they filed through the door and back into the building, descending the stairs quickly.

The last one down was Basil. He stopped for a moment, turning to look at the devastation behind him. The roof was in ruins; the Dream Sky's sign was falling apart. The sun had finally set, giving it all a sense of despair. But Basil couldn't help but smile as the rain let up, and the storm clouds moved on.

* * *

Kisuke Urahara walked out of his small cottage. Heading back over to his car, he looked sadly at the two women and man standing beside it.

"Chrrrrrrrrrroooooommeeeee! Why must you leave meeeeeeeeee!" He fell to the feet of said girl, who was staring at him curiously.

"Umm...I'm still in your classes for another four months." she reminded him.

He snapped his head up, looking at her beseechingly. "B-but who am I supposed to get to live here so I can put camera's in the shower head and lightbulbs and take lots of naughty videos of!"

"You better be joking." said Tsuna, coming to stand slightly in front of Chrome, who's face seemed to be stuck between embarrassment and horror.

"Oh, it's a very good possibility." said the final member of their car pool. She held her chin with one hand, dark skin clashing with her golden eyes. "You know..." she trailed off, her pupils seemingly growing into slits as she smiled mischievously. "Now that I think about it, I might have seen posters being sold around campus..."

All of Chrome's blood must have been in her cheeks, with how much her body seemed to have paled. Except for her cheeks, which could have lit the deepest pit in the world.

"I actually own one myself-" Kisuke tried to joke, but stopped when his throat involuntarily choked on the killing intent coming off Tsuna. His eyes had turned orange of their own accord, and his hands were already covered in his gloves. His hands were curling into fists, but stopped mid flex when Chrome grabbed his sleeve.

A tense moment passed.

"I'm joking!" The woman suddenly cried, clapping her hands once. "J-o-king. We'd never actually do that to ya, kid." she finished, rubbing Chrome's head good naturally.

Tsuna lightly snorted. "Kid...you know, we're maybe, _maybe_, eight years younger then you?"

Kisuke stood. "Eight years...right." he muttered, pulling his hat down.

The woman ran a hand through her purple hair, before suddenly jumping on Tsuna. "C'mon, Tuna fish! Don't be so serious all the time! Besides, you can't kill Kisuke, we have a party to go to and he's good at scratching my itch." She winked at the man, who was suddenly all bright sparkles and rubbing hands.

"Oh, Yoruichi-san, you can be such a tease." he smiled widely, waving his fan at her like a modest school girl.

Tsuna rolled his eyes, smiling ever so slightly. "Fine, fine. Let's go."

They all got in the car, and as Kisuke pulled out of the driveway, Chrome looked one last time at what had been her house for close to a year.

"I still can't believe you're moving out." said the driver a bit more seriously as he pulled onto the highway, heading into town.

Chrome shrugged. "It was time."

From the passenger's seat, Yoruichi turned around. "Are you sure about this? I mean, I know the two of you are serious about this...but sharing a house? You've only been dating for about three months. Don't you think you're taking this a bit too fast?" she asked.

Tsuna shook his head. "We've talked about it a lot. And the first thing I do when I get off work is head over to the university to pick her up. Then I stay with her till she goes to sleep. We see each other all day anyway, might as well save gas."

Kisuke nodded. "That...makes sense." he said. Smiling, his voice got an octave higher. "And now you have more time to spread her legs and make her squeal!"

Yoruichi slapped the back of his head. "Do you wanna ruin his chances?" she asked.

Kisuke whimpered. "I was just stating the truth."

She shook her head. "But what do you think his chances of getting laid tonight are _now_?"

"Pretty good." said the other three occupants of the car.

A moment passed, before they all busted out laughing.

* * *

"HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAAAAAY DEAR THIRRRRRRRD DAUGHHHHHHTER, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

Isshin finished singing Rukia her birthday song, and everyone clapped, laughing at Rukia's blushing face. She mumbled out a thanks and tried to make a beeline for the door out of the clinic, but Renji picked her up and brought her back to the center of the crowd, where everyone was trying to wish her well at once.

Chrome leaned in one of the corners, smiling at the scene. Rukia was trying to placate everyone at once while her head swiveled. When the petite woman saw Chrome, she mouthed _save me_.

Chrome bent her head, shaking her head. Straightening up, she began to walk to the mosh pit of people, who seemed to be about three seconds away from picking the little girl up and throwing her up and down. Chrome walked around the people, stopping next to Gokudera. She tapped his shoulder, and whispered a few words into his ear. He smirked evilly, nodded once, then left.

A few seconds later, multiple car alarms went off. Startled by the sound, everyone flocked outside to see what was going on in time to watch the giant, twenty foot tall ice sculpture of Chappy the Rabbit that Rukia's older brother had somehow ordered slowly fall on its side, shattering into a million pieces.

The world was silent for a few moments, saddened by the loss of such a colossal waste of time.

Then everyone abanonded their cars, rushing over to the remains of the sculpture.

Still inside, Chrome stood next to a gaping Rukia. The petite woman looked like she was almost in tears. "You...you blew it up."

"At least they all got away from you." Chrome pointed out.

She fell to her knees. "You bastards! You blew it up!" she began to sob.

Chrome looked down at her, feeling something that maybe, once in a blue moon, could possibly be considered a shadow of pity. "I can get Boss to get you another one."

Rukia instantly stood up. "Really?" she asked hopefully.

Chrome nodded. "Boss!" she called.

"Why do I feel like my wallet just got lighter?" Tsuna asked as he walked into the room from the main house, Ichigo directly behind him. They both carried drinks in their hands.

They walked over to their girls, and Chrome pointed outside. Both men took a look out the window, and stared at the crowd of people around the remains of the Chappy sculpture.

Tsuna groaned. "Gokudera blew it up, didn't he." Chrome nodded.

Ichigo snickered. "Nice. Have to give the guy a pat on the back later-OUCH! DEMON MIDGET, WHY'D YOU DO THAT!"

"HOW DARE YOU ENCOURAGE THIS SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR!" Rukia shouted back. Quickly turning to look at Tsuna Rukia smiled. "But Chrome said you could replace it. You could, right? Please?"

Tsuna opened his mouth to point out all the reasons why he wasn't going to commision such a huge waste of space, but one look at Rukia's eyes, sparkling with hope, killed any arguements.

"Boss." Chrome called softly. He looked at her, and saw her eye was sparkling as well, her cheeks flushed. "Can you please help Rukia out?"

Both women clasped their hands in front of their chest, staring Tsuna directly in the eye as they leaned towards him. "Pleeeease?" they asked in their sweetest voices.

Tsuna knew he was screwed.

He pulled out his checkbook. "How much do you need?" he asked, sighing.

"Whipped." Ichigo snorted from next to him.

Tsuna just tiredly nodded his head, signing the check and leaving the amount blank.

* * *

Gokudera beat his head to the music as he watched the couples on the dance floor. As soon as they could, everyone from their age group ditched the rest of the world and headed to the penthouse the Vongola owned on the outskirts of Karakura. They had instantly got music going and drinks flowing, as they always did.

He'd been talking with Uryuu Ishida earlier about archery techniques, but the other man had to go stop his girlfriend from unsuspectingly joining the other buxom woman in a wet t-shirt contest. The woman could be a total bimbo at times, but she had a good head on her shoulders.

So now the Vongola Storm Guardian was resting against one of the walls, watching his boss, with his girlfriend, talking to their friends. He smiled.

Gokudera had always known that something had been going on between the two of them. He just beat the two of them to that same realization.

He'd heard many people worrying over them and how about they were taking things too fast. In all honesty, Gokudera thought they had waited long enough.

_They are the sky and mist; one envelops and encircles the whole world, watching over it; the other shrouds and covers the very same world, distorting it's shape as it sees fit. Two exact opposites who couldn't be more alike. It'll work out_.

Of course, not even the hardened mafiosi that he was could handle the next exclamation.

"What do you mean you're already married!" Yelled Haru.

It took all of Gokudera's training to not shoot his liquor across the room. Everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing.

"Well...it's not marriage, persay." Tsuna tried to defend himself.

"Then what is it?" asked Renji pointedly. Through Rukia, he'd grown fond of the purple haired illusionist, even if he did think she was the weirdest girl he'd ever met.

"Um..." Tsuna faltered.

"Told you it was a bad idea to talk." Chrome muttered.

Tsuna nodded quickly before continuing. "Well...about a month ago we took a vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada. And, while we were there...we decided to elope." Tsuna shrugged, like it wasn't that big of a deal. The rest of the room begged to differ.

"WHY!" Was the general consensus.

"Because you're all too noisy." Chrome deadpanned.

The noise of multiple bodies falling to the floor could be heard from thousands of miles away, and would be talked about in China for generations as 'The Day the Spirits Fainted'

* * *

"Congratulations." Enma said as he walked over, resting against the railing on the balcony of the penthouse next to Tsuna.

"Really?" the Vongola boss asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"No." Enma said, aiming a right jab at Tsuna's temple. The other man ducked, stepping out of the way as Enma overextended himself. "Thanks." Tsuna said sarcastically.

"You know they're planning on forcing you guys to hold an actual wedding, right?" Enma asked, straightening up. Tsuna nodded.

Silence ruled for a few minutes as the bosses watched the crowd inside. Everyone who had survived the meeting had come around, even if they didn't know Rukia, just to party. They had all been living like their was no tomorrow since the mind games with Cheryl because...well, they just didn't know.

The Vindice had taken Cheryl into custody, and with the evidence faked, she was blamed for the deaths of the other bosses and promptly executed. But it had been a close call. And when the other families learned the details of what had happened, they blamed Tsuna for not being able to control his own splinter sects, and declared war.

So, it had been the Vongola, Shimon, Chivarone, Tomaso, Giglionero, and Giegue against basically every other high end mafia on the planet. It was a bitter conflict, to say the least. And one they might not win.

Enma sighed. "Reports say that the guy you call Byakuran took over the Gesso earlier today. Apparently he used some weird white flame to turn the previous boss to ash."

Tsuna nodded. He had expected the conflict with Byakuran, and deployed Shoichi Irie months earlier. He was already a trusted member of the Gesso, and with any luck would befriend Byakuran in the next week.

"I'm guessing your mulling over some plan to bring him down?" Enma guessed.

Tsuna nodded. "If I were to fight him right now, it would be a close call. I'd probably win, but if he set up any snipers or called in backup...I'd be a goner."

Enma raised an eyebrow.

"However," Tsuna said, "If I were suddenly able to regain the days of large, unmeasurable growth I had as a boy, then I'd be able to win hands down, with a bit of training."

Enma's eyes widened. "You don't mean..."

Tsuna smiled. "Something has to cause that earthquake and get the ball rolling between us." Tsuna pointed out.

Enma nodded. "I guess you're right. You gonna keep them away from all of us?"

Tsuna nodded. "My younger self can't have any inclination as to who you are."

Enma nodded again. Downing his drink, he said "Then I'm going to go enjoy myself before talking with you causes me to form my OWN crazy schemes." he walked back into the house, pulling to him a girl with purple eyes and short, red hair.

Tsuna smiled. It grew wider as he looked around at all his friends. Twelve years ago, if you had told him that he'd be standing on the balcony of a penthouse, smiling at a group of over fifty people who would die for you, he'd have smiled wistfully and shook his head, waiting for the joke or insult.

But now...he couldn't imagine it any other way. He'd been in some form of conflict every day for the past ten years, and had grown calloused to it. He'd learned to enjoy the little things. But to not hide from the big problems, either.

The real reason he and Chrome had rushed their relationship and gotten married so quickly was because there was a small part of each of their hearts that couldn't help but be afraid of waking up and having to go to the others funeral. They wanted to eliminate all the possibilities, so that they never had to ask themselves _what if?_ if something did happen.

But that was a train of thought for a different night. Right now, he was going to go find Chrome and pull her close and not let go. After all, he'd been to the future. He'd done the impossible. He had juggled the life of a mafia boss and student; being a stay at home husband and crime lord shouldn't be that hard.

Nope. He definitely wouldn't have his life any other way.

_...Besides_ he thought, _What else could life possibly throw my way that I wouldn't expect? What HAVEN'T I seen in the world?_

_

* * *

_

Rukia slew the hollow, dropping back to the ground. "God, it's my birthday, you'd think they'd give me some time off." she complained as she walked towards Ichigo.

He rolled his eyes. "Right. Because soul society is definitely the kind of place to give you nice birthday cards with flowers and rabbits."

"Shut up." Rukia growled moodily. "And why aren't you doing this anyway? Shouldn't you give your girlfriend _some_ time to rest and relax?"

Ichigo smirked. "Well, if you need rest and relaxation after three hollows, then you definitely need a new career. But if you want to, fine. I'll pick up the slack you always leave-OOF." He fell to the ground, an imprint of Rukia's fist in his stomach.

She gave him the evil eye, about to insult him, when a loud yell rent through the air. Spinning around, Rukia flash stepped behind the creature, a large dinosaur looking thing with tentacles for fingers, and sliced his head in half.

Rukia went back to Ichigo, about to make a comment on her skill, when they heard a glass fall.

They both started, staring at Chrome, the broken glass directly under her open hand. Chrome stared at the spot the Hollow had been at before looking _right at_ Rukia.

And three blocks away, Tsuna felt the world conspire against him as Chrome asked Rukia, still in her shinigami form, "What was that?"

END

**Yup. The end. For those of you who enjoyed the ending, thanks! Glad you liked it. For those of you who thought it was unrealistic, let me say this; This is TYL!Tsuna. The man who was able to come up with the most flexible plan in existence to defeat a demon who knew every possibility he could make. You'd think he'd be able to adapt to the mind games once pushed enough. I know a few of you are probably shaking your head at me letting Dino live, but I felt that Tsuna would do everything and anything in his power to keep someone alive. Because, as we saw at the end of the Future arc, to him it's not just about victory; the only victories to him are the ones where everyone goes home. I tried to have this finale be like that, where he's able to swing in and help make sure everyone makes it out okay, in classic shonen style. And everything with the parties was more me trying to show that things are as close to normal again as you can get with the KHR universe.**

**If you STILL can't stomach my ending, I promise that my next fic will be much more realistic, and angsty, and filled with drama. I'm about 85% sure that I know what I'll be putting up next, unless sometime in the next two weeks one story gets a huge influx of votes. But, the official announcement of what I'll be writing next goes up the 22nd of November, unless school lets up long enough for me to write more then expected.**

**Also, a note to those of you who look at one of my summaries and think that it's a gen fic (which could be why you vote for it): It's NOT. In fact, the one summary in that poll that may lead you to believe that it's a gen fic actually has the most pairings of the five! I'm a romance writer, even if the story is primarily something else! It's what I do.**

**Also, note: Chance of sequel is about 5%. The story is over, and I honestly can't think of how I'd write the war (well, I can, but it would be an angsty story between Tsuna and Chrome, and I just can't see them at each others throats like a good angsty story would make them.)**

**Now, onto reviews:**

**Uninspired Author: I'm glad you thought it was a good idea, at least. And the reason why the brainwashing scene was so short was because 1) Tsuna was faking and 2) I rewrote the damn thing about three times, and that was the best I could get it. There was so much more I could put in, but I wanted to end it with Chrome "Dying" and you can only lay on the ground with a blown up heart for so long as the bad guy rants before you die. And is it good that it seems like those bits came out of a movie? I've been trying to build tension throughout the fic, but I don't know if I've done too well.**

**TenchiSaWaDa: Wow, a negative review, this is a first for me. Like ever. It was a bit of a wake up call. Anyways, as usual, your reviews are helpful...but this time it wasn't about your advice. You actually kick started my muse back into focus, and I can say that I feel much better about this chapter then any chapter I have in awhile. Now, I can also say that I knew what you said already. Character death is another form of development for the others. There have also been a few times where an author could use a death to advance the plot alone. This is not one of those times. I hope you can understand why I wrote Dino's "Death" the way I did.**

**kurobunnyalice: YES I KNOW 2796 IS FTW! THATS WHY I WRITE IT! And TYL!Tsuna is never an idiot, he was faking the whole time, I swear! And this was the final chapter because the plot was finished and I have other things to work on! If you really wanna read more wait till I publish my next story! I had fun putting in the bleach characters, and I think I'm going to write a crossover at some point and time. It's safe to say my muse is back and going full throttle, and I have an amazing story mapped out. I hope you read it when I put it up. Good luck with your own story. **

**dJhAmystery: Ah, so I was able to get you too! Yes, my evil plan worked! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I hope you stop crying now that I brought back our favorite klutz. And I would never make Tsuna hurt his love like that...probably. I'm glad you have such a high opinion of this story, and I hoped you liked this chapter just as much.**

**DeadFlash27: I would tell you I'm going to update more often, except that the story is over. I'm glad you enjoyed the climax, it was really fun to write, and I'm excited that you'll be reading my next story. I'll always update quickly if you and the peeps I think I've gained have keep reviewing.**

**Well, that's all folks. Hope you liked the story, and I'll see you by the beginning of december.**


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